How Long Can State Ignore Local Roads?

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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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.