I’m not sure what the provenance of this document is, but it has replicated in cyberspace as an e-mail from Del. Philip A. Hamilton, R-Newport News, to Tom Holden, a writer with the Virginian-Pilot. I re-publish it here because it is the best outline I’ve yet seen of why Republican legislators oppose Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s proposed tax plan and what alternatives they propose to put in its place.
Transportation Concessions
Déjà vu all over again“If you continue to do what you have always done, you will continue to get what you have always gotten,” Delegate Phillip Hamilton (R-Newport News) said in reacting to Governor Kaine’s recent transportation proposal. According to Hamilton, the proposal is another attempt to address transportation needs with an out-dated strategy – increased taxation without any significant congestion relief – that has been rejected in the recent past.
In addition to the lack of new ideas and innovation in the plan, “There is nothing to suggest a significant reduction in congestion that is choking Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads,” Hamilton said. “While mass transit should be included in any transportation plan, there is nothing to link the grantors tax being imposed in Buchanan County and bus purchases in the urban crescent. There also is no evidence that more government-subsidized mass transit will reduce the existing congestion problems in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.”
From Hamilton’s perspective, one of the glaring omissions in Governor Kaine’s transportation plan was absence of any reference to transportation concessions and private sector involvement in financing possible congestion relief projects. Yesterday, Hamilton and other state legislators met with U.S.Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and other federal highway transportation officials in Washington, DC to discuss the possibilities for transportation concessions as a major strategy in addressing numerous congestion relief projects in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia. “It was my perspective that the federal government is ready, willing and able to work with Virginia to advance significant congestion relief projects in the Commonwealth,” Hamilton said.
During the meeting, Hamilton learned that Virginia was one of only fourteen states that enjoyed a preferred status from the federal government for such projects. He also learned that private investors had nearly $400 billion available worldwide for such transportation infrastructure projects.
While Hamilton was pleased that the Governor’s plan abolished the HRTA and included the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel in the list of project priorities for the Hampton Roads region, he does not believe the plan will ever provide the needed level of funding for the projects to ever be completed with the traditional funding streams.
For Hamilton, the focus of the Governor’s plan was the maintenance of existing highways, bridges and tunnels. Acknowledging that maintenance funding is important, the plan’s maintenance funding projections seems to be based on no improvement in the Virginia economy over the next six years. As a result, the plan seems to ignore statewide funding increases and policies for maintenance that were implemented last year.
After his Washington meeting yesterday, Hamilton is more convinced than ever that private-sector financing through long-term transportation concessions for the tolling revenue is the best strategy to address the congestion issues facing the Commonwealth today. “Virginians want congestion to be addressed and they believe the users of the roads should bear the burden for their construction and maintenance. Virginia should be more aggressive in seeking these public-private partnerships that build on our existing transportation facility assets to reduce congestion through new or improved highways, bridges, and tunnels.