Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has publicly cast his lot with Sen. John H. Chichester and his allies in the state Senate who would burden Virginians with $150 vehicle registration fees on top of all the new fees and taxes contained in the GOP transportation compromise. I’ve lost track of the total tax take, but I suspect that the Senate/Kaine proposal would raise about $1 billion a year in new taxes and fees, if regional levies in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads are included.
(Read accounts in the Virginian-Pilot, Times-Dispatch, Daily Press and Free Lance-Star.)
The Axis of Taxes continues to maintain that transportation shouldn’t compete with programs for the widows and orphans who rely upon the General Fund for their sustenance. This is such a bogus argument, yet the Mainstream Media parrots it uncritically. (Brawwk! Polly want a cracker?)
If anyone in the MSM has noted the statistics cited by Attorney General Bob McDonnell in a statement he released Feb. 4, I have yet to see them.
State spending has increased at an average of 6% a year over the past decade; a whopping 3% above the growth in population and inflation combined. The argument that core functions of government will suffer because of the Republican compromise plan is absolutely wrong and irresponsible. During the most recent two-year budget cycle alone, the General Assembly increased funding for K-12 education by 19%, funding for higher education by 22%, funding for public safety by 15%, funding for mental health by 21%, and funding for the Chesapeake Bay by a record 38%. Despite misleading sound bites to the contrary, Virginians know that spending for every core function of government has increased dramatically and is now at record levels.
I am not shilling for the GOP compromise, which would draw upon the General Fund instead of rebate money to taxpayers. But I am calling B.S. on the Kaine/Chichester faction. A 19 percent increase of K-12 education isn’t enough? These guys need more money? How much will it take to satisfy these guys?
At least when Mark Warner raised our taxes, he also found costs to cut and tried to hold bureaucrats accountable for performance. Kaine and Chichester have largely abandoned the cost-cutting/accountability piece of Warner’s formula and embraced the second. Nary a word from either of them about restructuring the way roads are built and maintained, and only lip service for land use reform. Open the money sluices, baby, it’s spend, spend, spend!
Update: The Senate version of the Transportation Abomination is even worse than I realized. An e-mail summary from the Home Builders Association of Virginia reports that all the land use components but one, the Urban Growth Area requirement, as well as the prohibitions from accepting new subdivision roads into the state system, have been stripped from the bill — a minor fact overlooked in the newspaper accounts. Bottom line: The Senate bills represents a resounding victory for Business As Usual in every conceivable way. It… must… be… destroyed!