Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Time for the Political Class to Stand Down

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Virginia Institute for Public Policy Scholar Ron Utt takes applies his rhetorical axe to the legislature’s crumbling transportation plan in today’s Free Lance-Star and concludes that it’s time for some serious outside intervention:

There is a remedy to this mess. Last year the independent auditor for the state of Washington hired a team of experts to assess the performance and policies of those responsible for transportation in his state. The findings were so devastating that a few weeks later voters rejected a referendum for a tax increase that would have wasted $18 billion on sketchy transportation projects.

Sound familiar? Didn’t area voters in a 2002 referendum reject higher transportation taxes in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads due to lack of confidence in the wacky schemes promoted by public officials? Yes, they did, and that’s why the legislature and governor excluded uncooperative area voters from their newest wacky schemes by not allowing a referendum and by establishing regional transportation authorities composed of appointed, rather than elected, participants. In response, voters should insist that Virginia’s political establishment stand down from any renewed effort at transportation policy-making until a similar audit is conducted in this state, and its findings presented to the people.

In the case of Virginia, the audit should also take a careful look at the institutional structure that oversees the program, including the metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and the regional transportation commissions, both having limited expertise in transportation. Indeed, for those who serve on these commissions, an absence of transportation expertise appears to be a prerequisite for appointment.

As the saying goes, read the whole thing. (Cross-posted at Tertium Quids).

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  1. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    “Rhetorical Axe” is a fitting description.

    Some will say that the devil is in the details.

    It is not, it is the big picture.

    Citizens will not achieve the level of participation and responsiveness that Utt hopes for without Fundamental Change in the governance structure.

    That means elected governance at far more than three or three and one half levels.

    Those who want “less governement” without regard to effectiveness or responsiveness will get worse government instead.

    EMR

  2. Darrell -- Chesapeake Avatar
    Darrell — Chesapeake

    “Although there is disagreement among state and local officials, some said they think the ruling also applies to dozens, possibly hundreds, of unelected boards in Virginia, including those that charge fees for water and sewer services, parks, ports, airports and economic development. “

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/03/12/ST2008031200166.html

    Uh oh! The politicians played down and dirty with the citizens. Now the law of unintended consequences kicks in. Payback is a B*tch.

    “Although there is disagreement among state and local officials, some said they think the ruling also applies to dozens, possibly hundreds, of unelected boards in Virginia, including those that charge fees for water and sewer services, parks, ports, airports and economic development. “

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/03/12/ST2008031200166.html

  3. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Well, maybe the court is right and those boards SHOULD be elected.

    It would take away a big piece of power in the form of granting jobs to cronies from the elected parties.

    And it would provide more levels of governance, which EMR says are needed.

    Some Cynics think this issue is being rasied only to get the court to reconsider.

    RH

  4. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    “How fitting it is that the New American Revolution is getting under way in the commonwealth of Virginia”

    -Where can I sign-up?

    “In my district a politically active mortician appointed to the Commonwealth Transportation Board, had FAMPO authorize tax dollars to build a replica slave ship for a nonexistent museum.”

    -In my MPO there is a similar organization that was created out of the estate of a multi-millionaire that receives $500,000/year for a museum….that’s 10k a week in round numbers.

    The revolution may be coming sooner rather than later, IMO.

  5. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    “The state’s House voted 93-5 to sign off on Senate changes to a bill that would require the General Assembly to authorize putting tolls on Interstate 81. The measure – HB1516 – now moves to Gov. Tim Kaine’s desk.

    Sponsored by Delegate Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, the bill was offered in response to the Virginia Department of Transportation’s recommendation to widen the 323-mile roadway that runs through southwest Virginia and possibly charge tolls.

    Advocates say the bill is needed to

    make sure the decision to place tolls on I-81 is not made by an unelected board.

    It also would give communities along the I-81 corridor a voice in the expansion of the interstate.”

  6. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    “take a careful look at the institutional structure that oversees the program, including the metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and the regional transportation commissions, both having limited expertise in transportation. Indeed, for those who serve on these commissions, an absence of transportation expertise appears to be a prerequisite for appointment.”

    ahemmm…

    these are the SAME elected officials who acting in their capacity as BOS – tell VDOT how they want their share of the road money spent….locally

    AND.. these ARE the SAME elected officials who will approve a 1000 unit subdivision without doing a thing to upgrade the affected roads except to tell the voters that it is VDOT’s responsibility.

    So the problem is not the MPOs.

    Before the MPOs cam along.. these same elected officials who had no expertise in transportation – made the same decisions.

    They do so right now across Virginia in counties where there is no MPO.

    In other states there IS an separate, elected, road commission.

    finally, I was not clear on what Mr. Utt was suggestion as a better approach.

    Should we be electing only BOS who have degrees in transportation planning?

    I don’t think that is going to happen.

  7. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    “Before the MPOs cam along.. these same elected officials who had no expertise in transportation – made the same decisions.”

    Well, Yeaaah.

    The elected officials appointed the MPO’s to make their decisons in such a way that they could hide from them.

    Just check out the water and sewer sithuation in Marshall.

  8. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    You don’t need a degree in transportation planning to see what is going on.

    In fact, such a degree might put blinders on those responsible for making decisions that affect far more than transportation.

    A double degree in economics and systems engineering might be more appropriate – with a minor in polysci.

    RH

    AHEM.

  9. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    You do not have to be an expert in transportation or economics to be an advocate of government operated by people with the proper expertise and government that relies on fact-based decision-making.

    In Virginia, we already have two very reputable agencies for fact-finding and objective assessments and recommendations in
    – The Auditor for Public Accounts and the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Agency.

    There are a permanent part of our Government – to be tools of those elected.

    What we want is not elected professionals but elected who we should expect to be guided in their decision-making for facts and information generated by those with expertise and knowledge.

    For instance, JLARC has done an in-depth analysis of how Virginia does Transportation and has made several recommendations about how to improve Transportation in Virginia – that have been basically ignored by many elected.

    MPOs STAFF job is NOT THAT DIFFERENT from VDOT’s STAFF JOB and that is to use transportation professionals to provide technical support to public policy.

    Utt’s attack on MPOs is amusing in his apparent lack of knowledge of how VDOT does business with the unelected and unprofessional CTB – the top decision-makers in Virginia as a state and populated by those not only lacking transportation expertise but those with ties to businesses and business activity that could be viewed as conflicts of interest.

    So – let’s cut to the chase.

    If MPOs and TA’s need elected officials – something I’d actually support – Why not the CTB?

  10. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    I would support the idea of an independent audit — as Larry Gross points out, we have a very competent group, JLARC, that is well equipped to undertake it — but it is important to have realistic expectations about what it can accomplish. Traditional “waste, fraud and abuse” (WFA), such as the allocation of transportation dollars to recreate a slave ship, is a relatively small part of the problem. Let’s just assume that an audit turned up WFA that we could stretch our transportation dollars by 10 percent. Does anyone think that will solve the problem?

    A far bigger problem is the misallocation of transportation dollars by politically influential constituencies in ways that are entirely legal…. Highways like U.S. 288 around Richmond, which was funded courtesy of all Virginia taxpayers and served mainly to open up new territory in Chesterfield County to development. Multiply 288-style projects a couple of dozen times around the state, and you’ve opened up a land and created a lot of dysfunctional human settlement patterns.

    Of course, an audit won’t even touch the biggest problem of all, the lack of effective mechanisms to coordinate transportation and land use planning. Thus, even when transportation dollars aren’t spent for politically motivated projects, they still contribute to regionwide dysfunction.

    An audit is a good idea… but only if it doesn’t distract us from the larger issues.

  11. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    I continue to be a bit dismayed about the lack of knowledge of an excellent audit already done by JLARC – not acknowledged nor referenced by Mr. Utt and others critics.

    That audit did an excellent analysis of the problems and gave strong recommendations that are proving to have been prophetic!

    “EQUITY AND EFFICIENCY OF HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION AND TRANSIT FUNDING”

    (excerpt)
    “The study found that the current system for allocating construction funding is outdated and needs to be revised to ensure that construction funds are equitably and efficiently allocated. The existing administrative system needs to be replaced with a road
    classification system based on the functional purpose of the roads, and the VDOT districts need to be replaced with new funding regions
    for purposes of allocating regional construction funds.

    Here’s a 9 page summary which I would recommend if for no other reason to learn more about the issue.

    http://jlarc.state.va.us/Summary/Sum272.pdf

    There’s a companion report:

    “ADEQUACY AND MANAGEMENT OF VDOT’S HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE PROGRAM

    http://jlarc.state.va.us/Summary/Sum273.pdf

    I don’t think either or both of these reports are all encompassing of the scope and scale of the issues but they do lay out a likely foundation that will be needed to support more changes.

  12. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    You guys better quit talking and start acting because a major tax increase for transportation is already in the works. Thursday night during the last meeting of the General Assembly, Delegate Dave Albo put a floor substitute on to HB 1578. His floor substitute fixed HB 3202 by allowing the NOVA local goverments to approve the taxes and had the state impose a ONE CENT Sales Tax increase for Hampton Roads. While Albo pulled his legislation because he could not get the 3/4 total needed to waive the constitutional reading, his bill is coming back. Also, NOVA and Hampton Roads vote for a bill like that, the Senate will add some other type of statewide tax and then the House will vote to accept.

    Ghost of Alexander Hamilton

  13. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    from my reading.. there is a 400 million shortfall for State-wide MAINTENANCE … not construction.

    To cover that we’d need a 8 cent gas tax increase…

    .. and I dunno about TW/HR.. looks like their elected are not unanimous in support of a sales tax – which is different HOW from the one they shot down in 2002?

    ..but there is NO WAY that the NoVa TA will not be re-born…

    the basic problem is that the urban and urbanizing areas like NoVa and HR/TW have much “more” transportation need.. than RoVa.

    and if the statewide gas tax goes for maintenance only.. then I don’t think RoVa is going to demand MORE for new projects when they will suspect that the priorities will be for NoVa/HR/TW projects…

    Raising significant new money via a significant state-wide gas tax increase – over and above what is needed for maintenance.. is at best a long shot… some would say a sucker bet….

  14. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Right, so 8 cents just for maintenance. 21 cents to help make up for allthe stuff we haven’t done since 1987, and 21 cents for new projects.

    Sounds like a 50 cent gas tax.

    On the one hand we have people complaining the gas tax doesn’t pay for roads; on the other we have people agitating against a rtional gas tax; on another hand,in a letter to the editor sunday we had another example of people who complain that hybrids don’t pay their share; and in today’s Post a huge article on what is wrong with privatizationand tolls.

    We not only don’t have enough money, we don’t have enough hands.

    So, we’ll sit here and do nothing while the congestion tax chokes NOVA or until the recession reduces traffic enough that it isn’t an issue.

    With regard to the TA, some think that many independent boards are now jeopardized.

    RH

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