The Snooker Strategy
Don't be fooled: Virginia Republicans are the ones starving the state's transportation network.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

ABABY WHO was born in the year that Virginia last secured a stable new source of revenue for its aging transportation network would be most of the way through college now. If he happened to live in Northern Virginia and commute by car to classes at George Mason University, his life would probably be a nightmare of time wasted and psychic energy squandered on sclerotic roads during rush hours that last up to four hours. If by chance he decided to study public finance, he would doubtless be appalled by the Old Dominion's irresponsibility. Since 1986, the hypothetical year of his birth, Virginia's population and economy have boomed, but the state has not managed to tap one nickel's worth of fresh funding to update its roads, rails and bridges to 21st-century standards. In Northern Virginia alone, the cost of needed improvements to roads and rail is estimated at $17 billion.

On taking office at the start of the year, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) did the sensible thing by proposing a tax package that would yield $1 billion annually for transportation statewide. The Republican-dominated state Senate backed him. But Republicans who control the House of Delegates would have none of it. Instead, after a generation of neglect, they have decided to attack the problem of Virginia's roads with press releases.

The press releases are masterpieces of omission, obfuscation and budgetary shenanigans designed to snooker voters. Rather than proposing a long-term fix for a long-term problem, they proudly announce that they favor spending what amounts to a pittance -- half of the state's current $500 million surplus -- on one-time transportation projects. Never mind that they have no viable plan for sustaining that already inadequate spending next year and the year after, since surpluses never last and cyclical downturns are inevitable. Never mind that once the money they propose spending is divvied up statewide, it would result in barely enough to build a decent interchange and a few precious miles of highway in Northern Virginia. Never mind that soaring highway maintenance costs are already gobbling up state funds meant for road construction to the tune of $450 million a year, which is approximately twice the amount the House Republicans propose spending on transportation from the current surplus. And never mind that skyrocketing costs for road materials and construction compound the cost of foot-dragging on a long-term solution. None of that bothers the House Republicans, because they're really more interested in scoring PR points than in building roads.

Mr. Kaine, stymied in his attempts to fashion a sustainable program of new funding, proposes spending an additional $161 million in surplus funds on transportation improvements during the coming fiscal year. (That, in addition to $339 million in surplus funds left over from last year.) It is, as the governor recognizes, a drop in the bucket and one that must be weighed against competing funding demands for public safety, schools and the poor. It would do nothing for Metro, which is slowly strangling from lack of revenue; for widening Interstate 66 inside the Beltway; or for the staggering improvements needed around Fort Belvoir, where 20,000 defense jobs are to be relocated -- let alone projects elsewhere in the state.

So what is the House Republicans' response to the underfunding and Mr. Kaine's proposal to deal with it? First, a press release, of course! Incredibly, House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) bashed the governor for "shortchanging" transportation, when his own House caucus is responsible for the absence of any serious program to deal with the state's most urgent priority. And yesterday, House Republicans introduced legislation to shift much of the responsibility to local officials who approve new development. These are just more tactics in Mr. Howell's ongoing snooker strategy. They're not likely to work.