Well, the GA is done for the year and were unsuccessful in finding any more dollars for road funding. There does appear to be a belief amongst some in the GA that VDOT is wasting so much money that the waste alone would be sufficient to pay for new roads so they want an outside audit to find it. In any agency the size of VDOT there is bound to be waste and I’m all for finding it but I don’t believe there is sufficient waste to build the roads we need. The idea, as a surrogate for concrete action, is an insult.
The other thing that I’m starting to change my mind about is the idea of regional funding plans. The more I think about it, the more this idea bothers me. Why belong to a state if we are not all going to pull together? I understand at some level it bothers people in southside to help NOVA pay for roads but the reverse is also true: I am not terribly worried about a collapse in literacy rates that requires a bunch of state money to fix down in southside. Why should I pay for that? These things go both ways. I naturally see the improvement of transport infrastructure as a priority because I live here. They see their problems as priorities because they live there. Pretty natural.
What isn’t natural is the inability of those in Richmond to bridge this divide and here’s why: it is the job of our representatives in Richmond to see the big picture. Transportation funding is a big picture item. It affects everything from our economic vitality to what future development looks like. In short, it affects our collective wallets and how we will live in the future. As energy becomes more dear, we are fooling ourselves if we don’t believe that the places people work and the way they live aren’t going to change. Virginia has to be at the forefront of understanding and capitalizing on this change if we are to remain a compelling place to live. This is now and will always be a two-stage process with concrete as an immediate priority and mass-transit and better planning as once and future mandates. The state government must lead the way for this to work, they must do it for all Virginians and they need to get started now.
July 15, 2008 at 10:28 am
ewtf
July 15, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Andy,
I think most Virginians feel the same way you do about this.
The question now is how do we “knock heads together” and get
something done in Richmond besides having our representatives
entertain themselves with finger pointing contest?
July 17, 2008 at 11:20 am
A number of interesting items on the Finance agenda last night,
including a request from the VRE to sell some older railcars to the
MTA and purchase some new ones. (Manassas, as a member jurisdiction,
has to sign off on the agreement. MP approved on July 15th and
PWC is slated to consider the matter onn July 22nd.) Apparently
MTA will pay a premium since the Kawasaki cars match their
fleet while our new Gallery cars match ours – maintenance/parts
cost will go down for both systems.
At the end of the discussion and vote (approved to go to full
council), was an answer by the VRE representative Jennifer Straub,
to a question about the impact of the failure of the GA on
transportation. She said it left more that 20 million dollars of
Federal matching funds unusable to buy new locomotives and more
new cars that, among other things, would have added at least
three trains on the Manassas route.
Lincoln presided over the first railroad built across America,
Teddy Roosevelt the Panama Canal and Eisenhower the Interstate
Highway system. All three proud Republicans. Where are our
Virginia GOPers with vision to build for the future? Certainly not
in Richmond this year.