What just happened?

By DANNY MARSHALL
Published: July 16, 2008

The Virginia General Assembly is, by the design of our founding fathers, a “part-time” legislature. Legislative sessions in Richmond are usually handled in 45 or 60 days. The rest of the year, delegates and senators live and work among the citizens of our districts. The idea is efficiency and less state government interference in your lives.

We have just completed a “special” transportation session called by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who declared a transportation “crisis.” This session cost Virginia’s taxpayers more than $100,000. It is interesting that there was no transportation “crisis” recognized during January and February when we were putting together the state budget. Actually, during the 2008 regular session, we restored $180 million for key transportation projects that the governor had diverted to other projects.

When we reconvened, the governor’s proposals of tax and fee increases that he had presented at more than a dozen town hall meetings across the state were not even agreed to by his own party. When his original bill was brought to a floor vote in the House of Delegates, it lost 98 to 0. This was the bill that Delegate Ward Armstrong, D-Martinsville, carried for the governor.

What just happened? Why were we called to Richmond when the preliminary work had not been properly completed? The governor called the session. It was his responsibility to request that bipartisan committees work on viable solutions before the whole body was called in to vote, if indeed he was expecting a workable solution. I have never been very tolerant of wasting time and money, especially for political grandstanding.

I will be straightforward. All proposals introduced by the governor and the Democrats were to raise taxes: higher gas taxes during a time of record-high gas prices, higher taxes on auto sales during an auto industry recession, higher taxes on home purchases when the housing market is already down and a higher sales and use tax when consumers are already cutting their family budgets to make ends meet.

If legislators do not vote to raise taxes, we are summoned back to Richmond to “take responsibility, to make the hard choices.” Raising taxes seems to be the first and only answer in some minds for solving all problems. Is that really the hard choice? Actually, it is relatively easy for a legislature to do — just press the voting buttons and declare that taxpayers must reach in their pockets and give the state more money. How innovative is that? The hard choice and responsible position during difficult economic times is taking the money you have and spending it carefully and wisely, while looking for all possible solutions to problems. Many Southside citizens seem to agree, since that was the overwhelming theme in the responses sent to me on my district survey.

While we were in Richmond, we did try to make progress without raising statewide taxes. There were bills introduced that were geared toward responsible spending and laying solid groundwork for the use of transportation money. The results are below. You will see a pattern of those who refused to lock up transportation dollars for transportation use only and who voted against accountability and alternative solutions. Note the House has a Republican majority and the Senate has a Democratic majority.

• Transportation Trust Fund Constitutional Amendment (provides a guarantee to the citizens of Virginia that money dedicated to transportation will be spent on transportation) — passed the House 94-0, the Senate adjourned before taking action;

• Performance audit of VDOT (Provides more realistic assessment of maintenance needs and revenues that will be available, as well as thorough audit of VDOT to identify waste and inefficiencies. Based on successful Washington state model) — One bill passed the House 95-0, but was left in Senate Rules, another bill passed the House 90-0, but was killed in Senate Finance;

• Transportation Accountability Commission Enhancement (Clarifies that commission has a direct role in overseeing the Public-Private Transportation Act process as practiced by VDOT or the other agencies within the transportation secretariat. Helps ensure that needed projects are delivered more quickly, thus speeding congestion relief and saving taxpayers money) — passed the House 98-0, but was left in Senate Rules;

• PPTA Expedited Schedule (Provides specific timeline for acting on critical PPTA projects so VDOT will be forced to act on these proposals in a timely manner) — Passed the House 67-28, killed in Senate Transportation;

• Bridge Maintenance Contracts (Provides means to maximize allocated resources to address bridge maintenance and improve safety. Based on successful Missouri model) — Passed the House 86-6, killed in Senate Transportation;

• PPTA Concessions for Hampton Roads (Directs VDOT to impose tolls or issue an RFP for a transportation concession on three major Hampton Roads transportation “choke points” and on all Hampton Roads HOV lanes that are converted to tolled HOT lanes) — passed the House 51-44, killed in Senate Transportation;

• Offshore Drilling Royalties (Dedicates future royalties from offshore drilling of natural gas and oil in Virginia to transportation funding, Chesapeake Bay clean-up and energy research and development) — passed the House 56-39, killed in Senate 16-18; and

• Transportation Funding for Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads (Provides up to $600 million in Northern Virginia and $300 million in Hampton Roads for transportation funding through dedication of 30 percent of future growth of certain revenue sources derived from economic activity relating to Dulles and Reagan National airports and the Hampton Roads Ports respectively) — passed the House 51-45, killed in Senate Finance;

Each year, we have addressed transportation issues and increased the funding.

In 2005, we invested $850 million to reduce congestion (House Bill 1500).

In 2006, we built upon that progress by directing $568 million in surplus dollars and ongoing funding (House Bill 5002).

In 2007, we financed the largest investment in two decades, $3 billion for road, rail and transit projects (House Bill 3202).

In 2008, restored $180 million in funding for key projects diverted by Gov. Kaine (House Bill 30).

I still believe that this was not the right time to raise taxes statewide, but it was the right time to pass common sense legislation that would secure the transportation fund and explore alternative ways to alleviate transportation problems.

What just happened? We have missed an opportunity!

• Marshall represents Danville and parts of southern Pittsylvania County and eastern Henry County in the Virginia House of Delegates.