Richard Quinn
The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
Wait now and the state's two most-gridlocked areas will pay more later.
That's the heart of the rhetorical battle over transportation funding that reached its latest crescendo Friday.
House Republican leaders said Friday that without a quick fix, Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads stand to lose millions of dollars for new road projects. The Senate's Democratic leadership continued to say a special session is likely, while pushing a plan to raise statewide gasoline and car titling taxes to pump money into road maintenance.
House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said a recent court decision did not call on lawmakers to raise taxes and officials should focus on salvaging the authorities.
"It's over a billion dollars in new taxes," Griffith said of the Democratic plan. "... I think it affects the families of Virginia too harsh for us to use that proposal."
Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax, countered that the state needs to fix older roads before building new ones. He said Virginia's annual road maintenance costs will devour the state's budget for new road projects by 2015. Without fixing the maintenance fund, "the regional packages are worthless," he said.
Republicans said large-scale plans will only stall fixes for the regional authorities.
Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, said every month of delay adds $30 million in inflationary costs for Hampton Roads projects.
Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax, said his region loses $1 million every day without a deal.
Del. Glenn Oder, R-Newport News, said without money to pay for regional road projects, the authorities may lose federal support for them. He cited a letter this week from the Federal Highway Administration to the Virginia Department of Transportation pleading for lawmakers to act quickly.
Richard Quinn, (757) 222-5119, richard.quinn@pilotonline.com
Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com
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Tax Revolt! Grab The Tea & Meet Me At Harbor Park!
The projects are all needed and more. Start the projects. Fix the old roads. Build what is needed, & more. The taxpayers of Va need these projects & apparently don't wish to pay for it. Alternative steps must be taken. If its costing a million a day to delay then proceed post haste. . Let the "Tide" run all the way to the Oceanfront, & make it our new Gambling Mecca. It will be even better than Las Vegas. The tourists will all have something to do. The parents can be inside feeding hungry slot machines, while the lifeguards babysit the kids.. win win situation(except for the lifeguards), & the high horse, bible thumping, morality booster club.
Down with morals! Up with income! Rally!..I say Rally!! lol
not to worry , if they loose
not to worry , if they loose funds , it will keep them from building a bunch of roads that will be outdated by the time they get them complete , they can take the time to find some real qualified road builders who have a clue of what is going on and what will really be needed by then , to handle all the traffic ,
NO
The country is beyond a shadow of a doubt in a recession that soon will be severe, with little or no way out. Most citizens are just treading water, our homes are being taxed on values that do not exist, many now have mortgages that are much more then the value of the house (they should just walk away and many are doing just that). Our city councils and mayors have spent money that is not there and cannot be raised. Prices for food, energy, health care, insurance, and everything else is sky-rocketing. The proposed transportation projects are not affordable, even if a majority we citizens wanted them, which we don't. We can't pay for them. There is no money and no place to get it not just for these projects but state and national as well. Our private debts, our state debts, our national debts, the day we all have been putting off has arrived in spades.
Transportation
Keep in mind that these six transportation projects along with the creation of a unelected entity called The Hampton Roads Transportation Authority will do very very little to provide traffic congestion in our immediate area. A few years from now you will be stuck in traffic at the 264/64 interchange trying to get to work at the shipyard or to the naval base with the comfort of knowing that 4 billion dollars of your tax money was spent on six projects to relieve your traffic gridlock. Soccer moms will be stuck in traffic coming home from the base trying to get their kids to soccer practice. If you need to get to the peninsula, you will need to drive 30 miles to the Monitor Merrimac to get across while gas prices have gone up to $5.50 a gallon. If you want to take your family to Bush Gardens, you need to leave around 5 AM. You will also sleep better at night knowing that port authorities and the developers will have to spend less of their money for their operations.
Agree!
I certainly agree with Rose. Furthermore, the HRTA has left a bad taste in the mouths of the citizens. A good politician would not want to continue an entity that does not have the support of the general public. Supporting the authority for a toll based highway system not only creates another level of unnecessary and costly government, but also presents a bad image. The solution to this problem is simple, but politicians choose to remain faithful to their party rather than the needs of the commonwealth. Our only solution is to vote them out of office. The only trouble there is that the parties will nominate another lackey to take his place. What a pityful situation!
HRBT
The fix we need is to upgrade HRBT not a third crossing for the port. Let the port pay for their crossing!
Where's the BRAIN? Not in the GA!
To quote the article "House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said a recent court decision did not call on lawmakers to raise taxes and officials should focus on salvaging the authorities." NEW FLASH to HOUSE LEADER Morgan Griffith! The VA Supreme Court has ruled that these "authorities" cannot have taxing authority because they are NOT an elected body. That being said, I would expect a representative of the state General Assembly, above all the HOUSE LEADER, to KNOW the state constitution. Yet it seems he wants to continue to push to have the citizens of VA be taxed by an unconstitutional authority. If I recall correctly, the idiot Chris Jones also sponsored the bill to put the taxing authorities in place. It's time for the citizens of VA to wake up and quit re-electing people as representatives that have less knowledge of the state constitution than a third grade student. If the General Assembly members don't know the requirements of the state constitution, can we expect them to know anything else about government?