The funding mechanisms in the GOP transportation package are a Frankenstein monster of ill-fitting body parts hideously stitched together. They are atrociously, terrifyingly bad.
If enacted, the funding package would sever any connection between those who use the transportation system and those who pay for it. This transportation package would subsidize people who drive more and it would do nothing to reward people who drive less. Bikers, pedestrians, telecommuters and bus riders would support the road warriors who drive 30,000 miles a year. Only a lunatic detached from reality, or a politician… forgive me, for I repeat myself… would think that such as scheme would ameliorate traffic congestion.
The financing package would rely heavily upon General Fund revenues, much of it collected from income taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, lottery profits and the like, which have no relationship whatsoever to how much someone drives, when they drive or where they drive. The same can be said of the proposed $2 billion in bond issues and, to some degree, the $590 million that would be raised yearly for projects in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
Better for the entire GOP package — even the worthy reforms — to go down in flames than for this abomination to be enacted in law.