Gov. Kaine will not be standing for re-election, either. That makes it a bit easier.

And there’s already a way to tax the interstates, Gene – it’s called the gas tax. And you don’t even need to pay some private company millions a year to organize and collect it for you.

What it all comes down to is this: someone, somewhere has to have the courage to stand up and say “this is what we need to do to fix our roads.” And we shouldn’t have to create a new level of bureaucracy to find that leadership. The House GOP caucus had ample opportunity to roll out a plan of their own, but they failed to do so. Governor Kaine stepped forward into that leadership void and essentially proposed a plan that encompasses many of the tax provisions the House GOP passed down to the unconstitutional regional tax authorities in 2007–as Vivian correctly pointed out, the sales tax option was already in previous transportation package!

The fact that House Republicans are willing to let someone else raise the sales tax in Hampton Roads and NOVA but aren’t willing to pull the trigger on it themselves, I think, is telling. Make no mistake: this isn’t about House Republicans wanting to do what’s best for Virginians, this is about our elected Republican representatives not wanting to be held accountable for anything.

If you don’t have the courage to make a tough decision and be held accountable by your constituents, you shouldn’t run for public office; democracy isn’t really your thing.

Transportation IS a big issue – now. But a lot of folks didn’t see it that way in 2002.

There is a MAJOR communications problem in HR between its leaders and the citizens. (I touched on that here.) We don’t have the same openness of government that you guys have in NoVA.

Another issue is the whole concept of regionalism, something that also hasn’t been embraced down here. (Again, check out this post.)

Finally, as I see it, there are still folks down here who think it is the state’s problem to fix, not ours.

So, transportation is not really a big problem in HR. So what is the big issue in HR?

One other thing that the Kaine proposal will do: add the HRBT to the mix of projects. That has become a HUGE issue here. Folks, particularly on the Peninsula, see that as our biggest source of congestion. (Heck – I went to my mother’s on the Peninsula yesterday and there was a backup at the tunnel. What should have been 20 minutes was close to an hour.)

Dorothy – I can understand your concern but this package has to do with transportation funding, so I’m not sure why you would expect your issue to be included.

i sent this email to Gov Kaine today (sure, i bet he really sees it! haha)

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i am DEEPLY disheartened that in all of your new Transportation Plan there is not ONE SINGLE REFERENCE to the responsibility VA Driver’s bear to STAY RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS. i sent a message to you via our mutual friend (name deleted) many months ago. I also sent emails to all VA delegates, etc. In my opinion, not to include and fund a small campaign to educate drivers to this SIMPLE rule that could correct MOST of the ‘non-work hour’ traffic hold-up issues, not to mention alleviate a great deal of road rage. is born of great unconsciousness. I am so disappointed. I believe you are doing much good for our state and I thank you for that. You appear to be very authentic. So it’s beyond me why you would ignore something like this, that’s so simple and could do so much good, and instead do the typical governmental thing of favoring complication and doing less (even though you call this plan simple.) I sure wish i could hear the rationale of leaving this out of the plan.

I would like for us to fix the RTAs. And I think we can do this best through a delegation of taxation authority to localities. We could specify that this additional revenue should counties/cities opt to enact would have to go into a separate fund for transportation (reported separately in their financials). The jurisdictions could then contribute that money to the RTAs or the RTA could direct how the pool of transportation funds in it’s area was used.

I know that statewide tax increases are a non-starter for Republicans. So, I would prefer that we move this down to the local level. Republicans can then keep their promise to not raise taxes as they would be putting the onus on localities. Also, this way Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia get to keep their transportation related revenues and put in place solutions that work best for their citizens. Afterall, who knows better how to spend this money than the people who have to endure the commutes every day?

If the General Assembly delegates that power to localities, then we can use it conjunction with our existing land use powers to come up with a good solution. If the state government is incapable of solving this problem, I’m willing to roll up my sleeves at the local level (where I feel I have more say anyway) to fix this problem. And it should be easier because my fellow residents share my concerns and experience in a way that residents of say Roanoke do not.

How long will it take for it to sink in that it is not the funding method that is the problem, it is the $9 billion dollar plan of which $6.2 Billion is to serve the Port of Virginia and will do nothing to relieve congestion in the Tidewater cities?

The people have spoken, but Kaine is listening to the business lobby and not to us. We don’t want to pay for a driveway for the Port. He can refigure how to take the money from us as many times as he wants, but we will still resist the idea so long as the planned road package serves special interests and not the people of Tidewater. The Tidewater Libertarian Party has proposed an alternative approach http://tinyurl.com/4kwcjh

One of the biggest problems with transportation is that it is so complex and full of acronyms that the conversation is hard to follow. I’m not aware of anyone in particular in the press that covers transportation exclusively. I’m trying to understand it better myself. Fortunately, I’ve got a couple of folks who are well-versed in it that are bringing me along.

Frankly, transportation bills make me sleepy, but I’m going to try to pay better attention this time around. Is there anyone in the VA press that regularly does a good job of working through these bills in detail?