Candidates for governor's race fall short on roads

Virginians who hope the next governor will finally demonstrate the leadership needed to solve the state's festering transportation morass will be disappointed by competing plans released last week by the two candidates.

Residents deserve better. If they don't see something substantive during the back and forth of a gubernatorial campaign - when policies and promises are vetted and compared - the chances are lower when the winner actually takes office.

Democrat Creigh Deeds' plan is devoid of details, a skeletal framework that asks voters to trust that he'll come up with a meaningful strategy for relieving congestion once he's in office.

Deeds voted several times for higher gas taxes as a lawmaker, but election season has inspired a newfound shyness to tackle the topic. He says he cannot predict what proposals might gain favor in the General Assembly, so he promises to huddle with lawmakers and "local stakeholders" to cobble together a transportation plan in his first year. An equally vague proposal by Gov. Tim Kaine yielded long and pointless hours of bickering in Richmond but no dollars for the state's growing backlog of road, bridge and rail needs.

Virginia needs a leader, not another candidate hoping an amorphous consensus will spontaneously emerge without risk to his political ambitions.

On a safer topic, Deeds manages to produce a remarkably specific tax credit of $1,200 per employee for businesses that permit teleworking. The only noteworthy demonstration of leadership in Deeds' plan is his support for higher-speed passenger rail service to Norfolk.

Republican Bob McDonnell's plan, in contrast, is chock full of specifics, but it's those details that expose exactly how flawed and futile his policies are. Many of the ideas in his 20-page plan ring familiar because they have been rejected multiple times by state lawmakers, and McDonnell has yet to explain how he plans to recycle these clunkers into a successful road plan - or why this time he expects passage.

Instead, he goes through a complex series of contortions to give the appearance he is generating new dollars for transportation without actually committing himself to the difficult task of raising those funds.

Much of the money he promises to spend on roads comes from existing revenue sources now earmarked for schools, health care and law enforcement. Once the economy improves, he says he will divert an estimated $150 million a year from those programs for transportation. He also vows to use 75 percent of future budget surpluses for roads.

Education advocates have howled the loudest, but it's also worth noting that state troopers fare badly under McDonnell's plan. Despite new funding restrictions, troopers would be expected to clear accidents faster, while McDonnell simultaneously raises the speed limit to 70 miles per hour on many interstates.

McDonnell says he will generate more dollars by selling off licenses permitting private dealers to take over the state's 300 liquor stores. He promises to borrow $4 billion with the not-very-comforting assurance that "every effort will be made" to avoid "jeopardizing our triple A bond rating." The Virginia Department of Transportation has been authorized by legislators to borrow money, but it can't because it doesn't have the money to pay interest on the debt.

McDonnell counts royalties from offshore oil and natural gas drilling in his plan even though federal authorities have not committed to giving Virginia a share of those revenues. And he says he will ask President Barack Obama to give Virginia an advance on future stimulus funding, a request that's likely to inspire incredulity in the White House, given the Republican's opposition to previous stimulus dollars for unemployed workers.

It's no surprise that McDonnell is too squeamish to admit in an election year that taxes are an unavoidable element to any meaningful transportation plan. In the past, he's tentatively acknowledged that reality, only to retreat when radical elements in his party condemned his apostasy. But it is stunning to see how his plan abandons his home region of Hampton Roads.

The former Virginia Beach resident proposes to immediately give Northern Virginia a cut of existing sales tax revenues generated in that region. Hampton Roads, however, may not see a dime during a McDonnell administration. The Republican says he would give Hampton Roads a share of future tax revenues from port commerce, but cargo traffic is currently down 20 percent. McDonnell predicts earnings will be restored when an expansion of the Panama Canal opens in 2014, months after the next governor has left office.

Finally, McDonnell says he favors higher-speed rail to Hampton Roads, but he plans to reduce rail funding earmarked in future bond issues and use the money for roads. Federal support for the passenger rail service is dependent on the state's ability to find more money for long-term operations, but McDonnell instead is back-tracking on prior commitments.

The proposals from Deeds and McDonnell are not solutions to the state's transportation problems. Voters have every reason to tell the candidates they want something better before they head to the polls in November.