One week from today, the Virginia General Assembly will meet in Richmond for a special session on transportation, but it’s not likely to produce progress toward relieving traffic congestion. The state Supreme Court gutted last year’s compromise bill as unconstitutional, Republicans are digging in over Gov. Tim Kaine’s plan to raise taxes by $1.1 billion (including a regional sales tax hike rejected by Northern Virginia voters last time it was proposed), and Democrats are feuding among themselves over which taxes to raise. With Virginia now considered a battleground state, the upcoming presidential election serves as a political backdrop to the bickering.
But here’s a solution the governor and leaders of both political parties ought to support wholeheartedly: Amend Virginia’s constitution to put the Transportation Trust Fund off-limits to any other spending. This is especially important because a major cause of the current political stalemate in Richmond is the tendency of state leaders to spend transportation funds on everything but transportation.
Recommended Stories
During his gubernatorial campaign, Kaine promised that he would not approve any new taxes until such an amendment was passed, but his pledge remains unfulfilled today. Now is the time to hold Kaine’s feet to the fire. No new taxes should be imposed on state residents until Richmond’s politicians guarantee where every cent will go. Kaine looks more and more like former Gov. Mark Warner, who spent none of his $1.5 billion tax hike on transportation even as congestion continued to worsen in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and other urban areas.
House Transportation Committee Vice Chairman Glenn Oder, R-Newport News, plans to introduce just such an amendment when the legislature convenes next week. House Joint Resolution 6001 would create a transportation lockbox similar to the one requiring State Lottery funds to be used only for education. His measure would, Oder claims, “put the ‘trust’ back in the Transportation Trust Fund.”
The House Republican leadership has already signed on to Oder’s bill, so the ball is now in the court of the Democrats who control the Virginia Senate. If the governor and the legislaturecannot discipline themselves enough to properly fund the third-largest state highway system in the nation even when the state budget is growing, voters must do it for them. But they can’t do that until the politicians put the amendment on the ballot.
