Adios, amigos, it’s spring vacation here in Richmond and that means travel. First to Wilksboro, N.C., to visit my wife’s grandmother and celebrate her 100th anniversary, and then to Jackson, Wy, to see my daughter and take in a little skiing. Truth be told, my wife and son will be doing the skiing. I don’t ski. At my age, I figure I’m too old to learn without inevitably taking a tumble and shredding the ligaments in my knees. I might try padding around in show shoes for a while, but that’s the extent of my adventurousness. Some rebel, huh?
The General Assembly still has unresolved issues that I won’t be able to comment upon, but I’m not terribly worried. For all the posturing of both sides, the budgetary issues that differentiate the Donkey Clan and Elephant clan seem pretty small. The real action will come later this year — whenever Gov. Timothy M. Kaine decides to call a special section of the General Assembly to address the melt-down of last year’s transportation funding package.
Sadly, I see little evidence that anyone has learned much of anything from this debacle. But devising a rational, user/beneficiary pays system for transportation funding is absolutely critical. The funding piece is only a partial solution to Virginia’s transportation challenges — there is no escaping the transportation-land use nexus — but it is vital nontheless. We need to inject more money into the system, but we have to find a way to do it that doesn’t perpetuate the dysfunctional human settlement patterns that are such a big part of the problem.
If structured properly, a user/beneficiary-pays system can provide financial inducements not only for people to modify their one-driver-one-car lifestyles but for developers and local government practitioners to embrace more transportation-efficient land use policies. I expect to devote close attention to this issue when I return.
Until then, I will check in sporadically as I can. Otherwise, I will leave the blog in the competent (and, hopefully, inflammatory) hands of Ed, Peter and our other contributors.