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Published: September 23, 2009
Updated: September 24, 2009
Is highway construction, albeit on a reduced schedule, continuing in Virginia at the expense of maintaining roads in the state’s localities?
Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer answered “yes” to that question last week and he is concerned about it. He should be. So should the two candidates running for governor, but they have refused to make transportation funding the principal issue it should be in this campaign.
Members of the Senate Finance Committee questioned whether it is wise — or legal — to sacrifice the state’s local roads in order to secure federal dollars to maintain and build federal highways.
Pierce told the panel that revenue reductions of $4.6 billion over the next six years have forced the state to choose to go after federal highway money instead of repairing and improving other roads and bridges.
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As The Associated Press reported, to qualify for federal money that contributes $4 for every $1 the state puts up, Virginia must meet minimum construction requirements. In order to meet those requirements, the state has reduced funding to maintain state and local roads by 25 percent.
Among those concerned about the situation is Sen. R. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania, who said he feared Virginia was violating a state law that says maintaining roads must be given a priority over building them.
“That seems to be a major, major policy shift (and) I’m afraid it’s the wrong decision,” Houck said.
The General Assembly’s refusal to find new ways to fund critical transportation needs means the state has all but given up on construction projects to ease congestion in crowded areas of Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. Those projects would also promote economic development, which is falling by the wayside as transportation needs continue to grow.
Has any of this made an impression on the candidates for governor?
Creigh Deeds, the Democrat, has said he would sign a bill raising the gasoline tax that generates most of the highway revenues. But he has not made that an issue because he’s afraid his opponent, Republican Bob McDonnell, would accuse him of attempting to raise taxes.
In last week’s debate before the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, Deeds declared, “No, I’m not going to raise taxes, but I am the only person on this dais that will sign a transportation plan that raises new money as long as it’s a dedicated source of funding.” He added that other funding proposals are on the table for him “except one, taking money out of the general fund.”
McDonnell has refused to consider an increase in the 17.5-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax enacted 22 years ago, but has offered a dozen proposals that pull money from elsewhere in the state budget, including the general fund. The problem with his proposals is that none of them generates any new money for a highway system that is crying out for new money at every turn.
In a perfect world, Virginia would have two candidates for governor who are talking about ways of finding new money to sustain the state’s highway system. That would include maintaining the roads that Virginians use in their localities and building new ones where they are needed to speed folks to work and school and assure the free flow of commerce.
That really shouldn’t be too much for the voters to ask. But politics — as in anti-tax politics that reign in the House of Delegates — keeps getting in the way.
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Reader Reactions
“Raising taxes in the middle of a horrible economy doesn’t make sense.“
You are absolutely right on this one. We should have established a dedicated source of funding for transportation BEFORE the economy got so bad.
Although I’m sure it never occurred to anyone that our 100-year-old bridges would need to be replaced in the near future. Who would’ve guessed, right?
If you are limiting your definition of transportation issues to traffic congestion, then no, Lynchburg doesn’t have a problem. Call me crazy, but I’d like to add to the list of transportation issues the following:
Bridges that are SHUT DOWN IMMEDIATELY during a routine inspection (see D Street)
Bridges that BURN DOWN (see Kemper Street)
Bridges that have LARGE PIECES OF CONCRETE FALL OUT OF THE MIDDLE OF THE LANE (see Candlers Mountain)
Bridges that have VINES GROWING UP THROUGH THE SUPPORTS (take a walk on the bike trail under the Rivermont Bridge, which is scheduled for repair soon, but they’re only going to repair the facing. Apparently those supports are in GREAT condition)
Roads that have LARGE POTHOLES which inevitably cause damage to your tires (try driving with your eyes open)
Roads that incur RANDOM SINKHOLES DUE TO TERRA COTTA WATER MAIN PIPES (see your beloved Church Street - 2 years ago?)
Just some food for thought.
That’s where you and I must part company M. Paul.
You want to live like a pig… count me out!
Raising taxes to deal with a litter/tall grass problem doesn’t make sense.
Raising taxes in the middle of a horrible economy doesn’t make sense.
Taxing the people of Lynchburg to add a new lane to the Capital Beltway makes sense to Northern Virginians but not to us.
Transportation is simply not a problem here. It is not a priority.
Our leaders should be fighting to keep as many tax dollars as they can here in Lynchburg to help it grow and prosper so that one day we me lucky enough to actually have real transportation problems.
There are, of course, real problems. We do need fiber optic trunk lines. We do need more secondary public education options. We do need higher SOL scores. We do need more jobs. All of these needs require huge investments but each of them unquestionably yields huge returns.
Money spent on picking up litter does not produce increased revenue.
You aren’t going to get any argument from me about the money spent on the 29 bypass. But why throw good money after bad?
Yes, now we harken back to the city states of ancient Europe. Why should the problems of one area affect the other. Let them eat cake. Good grief, but again I would ask you to check with Bedford County as to whether they have transportation problems or not
Paul M.—- Somehow I am missing your point here. Are you saying, on this island of love and transportation tranquility we call Lynchburg, we should all be utterly unconcerned with problems that are taking place in other areas of the state? For Pete’s sake we got, thanks to Vance Wilkins, a $300,000,000 by-pass that is the envy of the civilized world! Like THAT, people from Amherst getting to Sam’s Club in minutes, was the top of the list of pressing problems in Richmond?
Give-me-a-break. We are ALL in this together, unless you are suggesting that Lynchburg withdraw from the Commonwealth and go it on our own?
Rase the damn gas tax and lets start making this state look like people with a little pride of place live here.
The litter is absolutely disgusting. I once read that North Carolina has more pigs than people. From what I see along the roadside… Virginia has them beat.
Yes, of course there are regular transportation maintenance expenses. Yes, there are always repair and replacement programs. Yes, there will always be construction projects.
But there is no general transportation problem in the Lynchburg area.
When I leave my Church Street office at 5:00 p.m., I pass two or three half-empty GLTC busses in front of City Hall and I’m on the Expressway in two minutes.
Even given the ongoing construction and lane closures on the Expressway, I’m home after a 15 mile drive in 25 minutes.
On the worst days (barring closure due to an accident), a trip through the Wards Road congestion takes five minutes.
When my kids take the bus or Greyhound, it takes me fifteen minutes to get them to the station. When we fly, I can arrive at either the Lynchburg or Roanoke airports half an hour before boarding without worrying about traffic, parking, or security lines.
I reiterate. There is no transportation problem here.
No transportation problems in Lynchburg? What a ridiculous statement. How many bridges need to be replaced or refurbished. Ask the good people of Bedford County about how much money it will take to fix it’s roads. Lacey Putney has already signaled a willingness to look at raising taxes to pay for his and other county’s roads. This is a state wide problem and sticking your head in the sand will not help.
What kind of Doublespeak is this?:
“Creigh Deeds, the Democrat, has said he would sign a bill raising the gasoline tax that generates most of the highway revenues. But he has not made that an issue because he’s afraid his opponent, Republican Bob McDonnell, would accuse him of attempting to raise taxes.“
Translation: “The Democratic candidate wants to raise taxes but he doesn’t have the guts to make an issue of his position because he’s afraid of debating his political opponent who will call him on it”
The editors parrot Mr. Deeds’ promise that he will somehow magically “raise new money” without raising taxes. Is he going to go down the Obama road and start printing money? How about a little less adulation, and a little more investigation, Mr. Editor?
What is it with this newspaper and its obsession with transportation problems in Northern Virginia? There is no transportation problem in Lynchburg.
The answer to this question, of course, is that transportation is the hotbed issue in heavily populated, liberal-leaning areas of the state, and the only chance Mr. Deeds has of getting electing is by pandering to these areas with empty promises of magical transportation revenue.
So, just as in the gubernatorial election, our editors play politics over the interests of the readers by trying to convince us that we all need to open our wallets to throw money at Northern Virginia’s insatiable hunger for road funding.
Good roads cost money. It certainly doesn’t shock me that none of the candidates are running on a platform of raising taxes. Does it shock you?
The point is that there is no free lunch. Having had the good fortune to have visited a number of Eastern States this summer I can tell you that they were all nicely mowed and trim. At least the parts I saw. Virginia, on the other hand, has taken on the appearance of an abandoned house. The highways are unkempt, unmowed and strewed with litter to an extent I have never experienced. For Pete’s sake, even people who can’t make their mortgage payments continue to cut their lawns! It’s a “pride” thing and it appears that Virginia has lost theirs.
Over and over again I hear the Right Wing mantra that “Government is the problem not the solution”. Well, I don’t see any of them mowing the sides of the highways.
Now that we are on the subject of the Right Wing I must say that I don’t think they have really thought this through fully. Thousands of years from now when archeologists are digging and sifting through the soil of what once was our time, in what once was the State of Virginia, they will find a compacted layer of printed paper and plastic materials. Upon closer examination they will find that this layer extends in a linear fashion, at a specific depth, along what once appears to have been ground transportation corridors. After teasing apart the layer they will discover that the materials all fall into definite groups. They will have no idea what meaning to give to these artifacts of a bygone era, so they will simply call them the “McDonalds group”, the “Berger King group”, the “KFC group” and a poorly understood sub-group of apparent plastic worshipers known as the “Food-Lion group”.
Now, if you are wondering what any of this has to do with the “Right Wing” I will tell you.
GOOD LUCK convincing the PhD archeologists of the future it is but a remnant of “Noah’s Great Flood”.
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