Abandoning Virginians to Gridlock

And Virginia legislators who have signed a "no-tax pledge" have abdicated their responsibility to govern. We elect them to weigh difficult trade-offs and make the best (or least-bad) choice -- not to substitute dogma for deliberation and common sense.

Let's call this anti-tax demagoguery what it is for Northern Virginia: pro-gridlock, anti-family and anti-growth.

Here in Loudoun, zoning allows development that far outstrips the meager funding available for infrastructure, so we're digging ourselves deeper into an infrastructure hole. In desperation, many have embraced a developer plan to pay for about $300 million in infrastructure -- and to build 27,000 more houses in the eastern part of the county.

According to this plan, the way to climb out of our infrastructure hole is to dig a lot deeper. We can have desperately needed relief -- at the price of further development that will compound our traffic misery and needlessly increase taxes. It's time we in Loudoun and Northern Virginia break our addiction to irresponsible development.

We need reliable funding to deal with our traffic crisis. And we should be free to address the crisis without being prey to the Faustian bargains peddled by developers.

-- Charles Chappell

South Riding