Via Badrose comes a link to an op-ed from one-time Bacon’s contributor (and all-around good man) Barnie Day on the transportation bill.
If Jim weren’t sunning himself, he might get a kick out of it. Here’s are a few gems. On raiding the general fund to purchase pavement:
And sure, this clever bill — and it is clever (more on that in a moment, too) — does raid the general fund. Sorta. In a small-potatoes way. But there is precedent for raids like this. The late, great A. L. Philpott did exactly the same thing years ago when he carved out set-aside money for an upgrade of U.S. 58 across Southside Virginia.
The RTD’s Bart Hinkle wrote on this same topic yesterday. Seems one man’s raid is another man’s S.O.P.
But back to Barnie. On the regional taxing authorities:
Regional taxing authorities? This is my favorite. This one makes local governments dance and chirp like crickets on a hot rock.
These Northern Virginia poobahs get elected by running against the state, giving away the store recruiting all the growth and congestion they can lay hands on, and by approving subdivisions helter-skelter and around the clock. Then they say to Richmond, “We’ve got a problem. You’ve got to fix it. Pave us out of congestion.”
The reality is they’ve got all the tools they need to straighten out their own messes — all they need except the courage to use them.
Courage and long-term incumbency are (almost always) mutually exclusive. But it is very entertaining to read the squawking coming from local pols who might — just might — be forced to put forth an ounce of additional thought before approving that new subdivision.
Barnie concludes that the governor should sign the bill. I think Kaine might, but he’ll tweak it as much as he can before then. Will this bill make a whit of difference to anyone stuck in traffic? Probably not. It will kick the problem down the (metaphorical) road for a time and in a few years, a new governor will be touring the state looking for support to end gridlock as we know it.
But maybe by then, we’ll all have hover cars, and none of it will matter. Except for the traffic clogged skies. I wonder if those could be paved, too?