The GOP compromise package for transportation collapsed yesterday when the Axis of Taxes… er, I meant the Senate Finance Committee… endorsed a competing road-funding mechanism that is certain to get voted down in the House of Delegates. Working with Senate Democrats, Senate Finance Chair John H. Chichester, R-Northumberland, engineered a statewide gasoline tax instead.
Writing in the Washington Post, Amy Gardner and Tim Craig summed up the Senate logic with this quote from Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Fairfax:
A reasonable plan does not take money from public education, higher education, health care and public safety. Especially, it doesn’t take money from our sick and our disabled neighbors.
Yeah, it’s really tragic how the state has been starving Virginia’s widows and orphans. The state budget is only 20 percent higher this biennium than the previous one. Pardon me while I barf.
Although the Senate acted for entirely wrong reasons — the idea that taking surplus General Fund revenues would rip off the sick and disable is ludicrous — the end result will be positive if it collapses the road-funding compromise crafted by Senate-House Republicans. Here’s the real reason why that dog’s breakfast of tax increases and General Fund revenues was so bad: It would, in effect, subsidize the most profligate drivers and punish those who walk, bicycle, carpool, telecommute, take the bus or ride the rails. Virginia can never solve traffic congestion if it makes the cost of building more roads cost-free to the drivers!
Here’s what worries me. The GOP compromise does contain other very useful pieces of legislation for reforming VDOT and land use. These bills represent a good start on the long march toward meaningful reform of our broken transportation system. It would be a darn shame if the Senate kills these too. We shall see…