If you squander resources on misplaced priorities, you eventually have to deal with the consequences. That’s what’s happening now in Maryland and Virginia. These two triple-A rated states are in panic mode because they are quickly running out of money for transportation. As Examiner reporters Rachel Baye and Steve Contorno reported Sunday, Maryland expects to run out of money — even for basic road maintenance — by 2018. By 2017, Virginia will have enough for maintenance but not enough to fund any new projects.

Hand-wringing politicians in both states insist the only way out is to raise taxes, preferably on gasoline, even though that would put a major drag on state economies already facing looming sequestration cuts. But they’re not addressing the source of the problem. Both states consider transportation a lower priority than education, human services or public safety, even though it is critical to the functioning of all three.