On the Record with Joel Rubin: Moran and Webb

The first segment of today’s installment of “On the Record” dealt with transportation and the upcoming special session on it. The segment featured Newport News delegate Phil Hamilton (R-93rd), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, and Alexandria delegate Brian Moran (D-46th), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

Hamilton’s position is that there is sufficient money in the current budget to pay for transportation. He said what is needed is a “reallocation” of resources from other programs to transportation. When pressed by Rubin, he said that no detailed budget analysis has been done on what should be cut. Further, he said, they would not be really cutting cutting programs, but instead the rate of growth in the programs, which increased significantly this year.

Moran pointed out that reallocation will result in a cut in vital services. Eighty percent of the increase in the budget came from a few areas: car tax relief (which accounted for $1 billion), debt service on prisons and hospitals the Commonwealth built, K-12 education, higher education and Medicaid. Moran said that Virginia Beach received a reduction of 36% in its transportation funds because so much money is going towards road maintenance – $3 of every $4.

Both men agreed that transportation should be a core service of government and that it should be funded that way. Hamilton believes that the 3rd crossing for Hampton Roads should be looked at, and funded as, an economic development issue, not a transportation issue. With the need for $1 billion in sustainable revenue in order to cover transportation needs, neither Hamilton nor Moran were willing to rule out the possibility of increased taxes. Moran pointed out that four of the five interested parties are ready to solve the transportation issue. On board are the governor, Senate Republicans, including Ken Stolle, Senate Democrats and House Democrats. The lone holdouts are the House Republicans.

In the second, shorter, segment, Rubin interviewed Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb. Much of the conversation revolved around the war in Iraq. Webb pointed out that the Iraqi government has said that they will be in control of their country by the end of the year. Webb said that if that is the case, we need to get out. He believes there is a direct link between the rise of Hezbollah and the situation in Iraq.

Of course, Craney Island came up. Webb said it is leadership issue and pointed out that Allen is not showing any leadership. There is a Runaway Plant loophole in the law that allows companies, such as the Ford, to close a plant in the US and take the jobs overseas. The companies do not have to pay taxes on the earnings of that plant as long as they don’t bring the money back to the US. So both the jobs and the money are taken out of our economy. Allen has voted twice to keep this loophole in place. And Allen has never answered two questions put forth to him by Webb in the last debate: why he has voted to raise his own salary while denying a minimum wage increase and why there isn’t a good GI bill for those serving in the military today. Rubin said that he hopes to have Allen on his program soon; Webb asked Rubin to pass along the questions.