Does Washington want the states to spend transportation stimulus money as quickly as possible? Or as efficiently as possible?
Quick seems to be the answer from Congress. Efficient is the answer from Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who happens to be right on this one.
Virginia has been allocated $694.5 million in transportation money designed to stimulate the economy by creating jobs. According to figures from the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, work has begun on $114.6 million in projects around the state. That puts Virginia dead last in spending federal stimulus dollars designed for transportation projects.
So?
The chairman of the House committee doesn’t think Virginia is spending that money quickly enough and has sent Kaine a letter to that effect. “Virginia has fallen far behind other states in putting to work its Recovery Act highway formula funds,” Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., wrote Kaine last week.
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Oberstar pointed out that as of Aug. 31, Virginia had begun construction on projects totaling only about 17 percent of the state’s stimulus funding. “I strongly urge you to refocus your efforts to implement the Recovery Act and use the available funds to create and sustain family-wage jobs,” the congressman wrote. “These jobs are critical to Virginia’s and the nation’s long-term economic growth.”
Indeed they are. But putting the money to the best use possible in projects that will sustain the state’s transportation system for well into the future ought to be just as critical.
And that’s how Kaine, also a Democrat, responded to his colleague in Washington. The governor stressed that Virginia’s approach to spending the stimulus dollars is different from other states. The state has opted to spend the money on new projects after public comment rather than dumping the money into existing work.
“It’s not how fast we can spend it, but where we can spend it best,” he said, adding that the focus has been to gather public comment and feedback and to choose “new highway maintenance, highway construction, rail and transit projects needed statewide.”
Kaine also sought to assure the federal folks that Virginia “is implementing (the stimulus package) funds according to the intent of the legislation by creating new jobs with accountability and transparency.”
So Virginia is putting the transportation money where it is needed most. And thoughtful use of the money takes a little more planning and a little more time than spending the money as quickly as possible on existing projects.
There’s nothing wrong with that. As badly as Virginia needs money for its transportation system, some might even call it good government.
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