As mentioned in today’s MJM, the vote for the NVTA is coming close – early July. This vote will be amongst NVTA representatives over whether or not to move ahead with a bond issue. This first bond issue will be to test the constitutional waters concerning the legality of the NVTA by authorizing the issuance of the bonds and then, more or less, suiing ourselves. They will have to do this as there seems to be some doubt whether the NVTA is legal under the constitution of Virginia. This will let the NVTA know whether the courts agree that the NVTA is in line with the constitution of VA. This morning’s paper was pretty accurate except it made it seem as though Mr. Parrish and I were at loggerheads over the lawsuit issue. We’re not and my point in the paper was simply that, while I understand the need to legally validate the NVTA, I hate spending the money on the lawsuit. I suspect most would agree.
There are a couple of things that I believe to be true about the NVTA. The first is that it is a complicated proposition but no enterprise this big that crosses so many jurisdictional boundaries is ever simple. The second is that we likely won’t get another piece of legislation aimed at fixing our transportation problems out of the General Assembly for some time to come. I don’t believe the NVTA to be fatally flawed but pieces and parts of it do give me pause. I’m not crazy about creating regional bodies that have taxing authority. I don’t believe they ever go away and tend to expand. In New York, the transit authority has their own police department.
The long and short of it is that I know transportation is a top 5 issue for our area and I want to find my way to supporting the NVTA. However, I need to get answers to a select few questions and satisfy myself that we’re not creating a bigger problem in the future than the one we are trying to solve right now. I’m not into a “solution at any cost” but I also know I’ll never like the whole thing. This seems like a pretty practical approach to me….