Christina Nuckols
Editor's note: Beginning Monday, June 8, 2009, Kerry Dougherty's columns will be available only in The Virginian-Pilot newspaper.
Read more about this decision.
"Why are we here?"
The headline atop Transportation Commissioner David Ekern's latest and grimmest report on budget cuts wasn't intended to be plaintive or profound, but it was both.
A Midwesterner, Ekern isn't one to stew over existential questions, but these days many of his colleagues at the state highway department feel trapped in a meaningless, irrational existence as they dismantle their agency without instructions or even a worried glance from elected leaders.
In two years, the state's six-year road and rail plan has shrunk by more than $4 billion, a 36 percent reduction.
Since 2002, the Virginia Department of Transportation has dropped from 10,500 to 8,500 people. Another 1,000 jobs will be gone by next summer.
VDOT budgeters are shuffling dollars among projects in a desperate attempt to nail down federal matching dollars, which will go to other states if Virginia doesn't have enough construction under way to qualify for its full share. That's real money the commonwealth's motorists have forked out in federal gas taxes.
All of this brings us back to Ekern's question. Why is VDOT here? What do we want from it? Why do we need 7,500 workers if construction will be, in the commissioner's word, "episodic"? Does the agency have a mission any more, and how do we expect it to accomplish anything without money?
Those questions should have been answered years ago, but now is a good time to revisit them. This Thursday, the Commonwealth Transportation Board will gouge $1.5 billion out of its road budget. Folks from Norton to Norfolk will call down curses on VDOT, but it's a bit like throwing rocks at an emaciated creature trying to gnaw off a paw and free itself from a steel trap.
A more productive outlet for those frustrations presents itself now that we're down to two candidates for governor. What do Republican Bob McDonnell and Democrat Creigh Deeds want from VDOT?
So far, their responses have been less than satisfying. McDonnell says he will use revenues from offshore drilling to pay for roads and bridges. But oil platforms can't be parachuted in overnight, even assuming there's more than a bucketful of petroleum out there and the federal government is willing to share any potential revenues. There's no guarantee that McDonnell's proposal would generate a dollar before his four-year term is over.
Deeds has backed a gas tax increase to underwrite road construction. The state senator even broke with Gov. Tim Kaine in 2008 when he decided to push for higher car sales taxes rather than fuel levies. But during the primary, Deeds said he would delay decisions on how to finance a road plan.
Road networks in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia are gravely inadequate, and they won't get better without money from new taxes.
If McDonnell and Deeds are satisfied to allow congestion to erode our quality of life and throttle our economy, they should say so, and dispense with the gimmicks and platitudes. Otherwise, they need to tell voters whether VDOT will still exist in four years, and if so, what exactly it will be doing.
Christina Nuckols is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot. E-mail her at christina.nuckols@pilotonline.com.
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VDOT Problems
VDOT is not and never has been a fiscal policy making organization. VDOT can only do that which is directed to do by the Govenor, the CTB and our elected officals. To blame VDOT for our highway money problems in nothing short of "killing the messenger". VDOT is given X dollars and told to execute a given job with it. Given that the Commonwealth's procurement policy is archane and laced with "good old boy" and special interest driven procedures, VDOT is faced with a near impossible job from the start. These policies tie the hands of the VDOT people trying their very best to execute a good job and even worse the state has a siginificant number of people who's job is to enforce the counterproductive and wastefully policies. The current montra of "outsourcing" is mostly in response to the public blaming VDOT for their elected officals failures. The public seems to think that a private orginization that operates for a profit will be more effective that state workers working for much lower salaries and no profit involved. Pinch yourself if that makes ense! Even if that doesn't work for you, then look at the Feds and see that they have learned that outsourcing is not the answer and see ho
VDOT problems
then look at the Feds and see that they have learned that outsourcing is not the answer and see how they are pulling back from outsourcing. If you are upset at the highway problem in Virginia then remember what has happend in the past and vote for responsible leadership not just the political "Status Quo" we have experienced lately.
Democracy gives you the government you derserve
VDOT dererves much of their criticism with years of poor management which includes roads that take twice as long to build then originally estimated with consistent cost overruns. I do admit that there has been some improvement in the past couple of years but inefficency is still a trademark of the organization. That being said, I think that being a government of the people, we get the government we deserve. The people of Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia hate the traffic jams but don't want to pay for the solutions. Jack Nicholson stated the frame of mind of the populus in regards to our highway situation in a movie quite well. "You want the truth, you can't handle the truth." I believe the truth is that people think that it will be either someone like Donald Trump or Bill Gates who will pay the bill. However the reality is that we will pay one way or another, either by more taxes in one form or another to pay for better roads and alernatives such as light rail or by constant congested traffic and more time and gas being used on the highways. Whatever the voters decide, they will ultimately get what they deserve.
Throw the Bums Out
Those who follow the Grover Norquist school of public policy, that is,"the role of an elected official must be to cut off the arms and legs of government so it can be drowned in a bathtub" must be quite pleased that by electing members to the House of Delegates who subscribed to that philosophy, they have succeeded in having maintenance depots closed, rest stops closed, the grass left to grow taller than signs, pot holes to be more numerous than smooth pavement, projects removed from the highway plan, cities left to fend for themselves with local roads, bridges closed and abandoned, and now, federal money destined for Virginia to go to other states willing to pony up to the table. The anti tax zealots have left us with a legacy of decay, deterioration, decline, and of course they blame it on VDOT. What a cruel joke that these anti tax Republican delegates have presided over the most rapid and complete destruction of a once efficient transportation network, and they take pride in it. Throw the bums out of office.
Hard to fill
sorry for an organization that wasted so much money on overly elaborate toilets. All that money should have been used to add lanes and keep the basic maintenance on existing roads up to standard.
Priorities first.
The state already collects more than enough tax money. They simply spend it on misplaced priorities. Perhaps the Pilot Editorial Board might join in supporting the need for a Constitutional Amendment so guys like ex-Governor Mark Warner can't keep raiding the Transportation trust Fund and spending out gas tax mone on "other stuff"? Yeah ... right. Like THAT would ever happen. meanwhile, the Pilot keeps pushing for dumb stuff like expensive light rail TOD boondoggles and REALLY expensive "3rd Crossing" for the Port. The Pilot doesn't push for true needs, just wants - like jacking up the cost of adding more lanes to the Midtown Tunnel to insist that more tubes are added for "light rail" - tubes that connect to ... nothing. Itis the Pilot that doesn't have the right plan, not Deeds or McDonnell.
vdot
VDOT's meaningless, irrational existence as they dismantle their agency without instructions or even a worried glance from elected leaders comes from a meaningless and non-caring attitude over the last 50 years. VDOT squandered the money and Virginia has some of the worse roads in America, and I've traveled most of them. Closing, (or even thinking about it) interstate rest areas....what a joke. VDOT is no better than SPSA and it shows.
My solution to VDOT: fire all managers and above and hire all new people. CAN WE DO WORSE??? (Same with SPSA)