HoodaThunk?

The Virginia General Assembly is still deadlocked over transportation in the new budget, now way past due and bumping up against the drop-dead limit of June 1. At issue is whether to raise taxes to handle the transportation needs of the state, a brutally important issue here in the northern part of Virgina.

I drive a lot up here due to my job. I’m in DC 2 or 3 times a week and at various places in northern Virginia the rest of the time. The tranportation crunch has gotten critical. This past week, a traffic accident on the Dulles Toll Road turned what should have been a 1 hour, 15 minute trip to DC into a completely busted trip. At 1 hour into my commute, I was still not past Reston, a place it normally takes me 25 minutes to get to. And there was no where else to go. There’s no other highway from here to get me to DC – I have to travel well to the south to pick up Route 66 which is no picnic of a commute, either, or slog on a surface-street path on Route 7 to the North. Both options became overcrowded within minutes.

Did I mention there’s no commuter rail out here? The Metro extension to Dulles Airport that has been promised for literally 20 years has not even broken ground.

So, why did I vote against the proposed tax increase up here a few years ago? A tax increase that would have added 1/4% to the local sales tax in order to raise funds? Quite simple, actually. There’s 2 reasons.

1. We in Northern Virginia send a dollar to Richmond in taxes and get back less than a quarter in services and improvements. Areas to the south are getting new roads and bridges that we’ll never even see, let alone use, while our infrastructure begins to sag under the massive use we do see. We in the north see the distribution of transportation dollars are supremely unfair and we’re leary about sending even more taxes down there when it seems it won’t do us any good.
2. The taxes that were paid into the transportation trust fund were diverted in the past to cover other things. There’s no law on the books to keep that from happening.

So, to those people still clucking about that failure to win that vote a few years ago, I say this: Pass legislation prohibiting the Governor from signing a piece of paper and siphoning off money we need spent on transportation improvements and you’ll see more people willing to pony up taxes here. Put the extra tax money into a separate fund that will only get used on transport improvements here in the north and you’ll see even more support.

Don’t do that and you’ll see people get fed up with the lot of ya and elect to not send you back to Richmond at the next opportunity.