And the hits just keep on coming… Gov. Bob McDonnell has announced an addendum to the 2012 transportation legislation he is seeking this year. My favorite measure is this: Authorizing the Commonwealth Transportation Board to sell naming rights for transportation infrastructure!
According to the governor’s press release, the legislation will allow private entities to place their name on highways, interchanges, bridges and other infrastructure for an annual fee. Proceeds would be applied to road maintenance.
I’m looking forward to hearing some of the creative names people come up with. The Verizon Information Super Highway for Interstate 81… or the Utz Pretzel Interchange for the Springfield Interchange…. or the UVa Heart Center Bypass for the Charlottesville Bypass. (Does anyone else have suggestions? Let me hear them.)
Another bill to watch: One that would create “transportation improvement districts” from which 25% of the growth in state tax revenues attributable to a transportation project will be transferred to the Transportation Trust Fund to fund other transportation improvements. That one sounds like mischief!
The governor also wants to tighten executive control over key boards, including those of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority and the Virginia Port Authority.
See the legislative package here.
— JAB