Bad Policy That Is Constitutional Is Still Bad Policy

Earlier this year, HB 3202, the transportation compromise monstrosity that was birthed out of last year’s Virginia General Assembly, was declared unconstitutional by the Virginia Supreme Court following a lawsuit filed by Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William).  HB 3202 was ruled unconstitutional because it created unelected regional governmental authorities that had the right to impose taxes.  Taxation without representation is a big no-no.  (Didn’t these guys pay attention back in high school during Social Studies class or at least watch “School House Rock” on Saturday mornings in between Scooby Doo and Superfriends?)  Not only was this unconstitutional, it was also bad policy.

So now we’re in a special session of the General Assembly to try and find a transportation “fix.”  For some, that simply means fixing what was unconstitutional about HB 3202, not what was wrong with it from a policy standpoint.  Hence we are now presented with HB 6055 that funnels the money through the Virginia treasury and replaces the regional authorities with Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs).  Constitutional?  I’d say probably yes.  Good policy?  Not by a long-shot.  Many have already taken to calling HB 6055, “Son of Frankenstein (HB 3202).”

Jim Bowden at Deo Vindice has excellent critiques of HB 6055 here and here, while D.J. McGuire makes the point here at The Right-Wing Liberal.

Meanwhile, RPV Chairman / Del. Jeff Frederick has released the following statement:

As you’ve likely heard, the legislature is back in Richmond. Last week we convened in special session to continue the running debate on how to address Virginia’s complicated transportation challenges — especially those in the Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads regions.

Of course, the debate is largely the same as it has been in recent years: should we keep doing the same thing over and over again and somehow expect a different result; and does Virginia have the money to dedicate to transportation if transportation was made a top spending priority? Or, do we take the easy way out by attempting to simply tax and pave our way out of our problems — by asking you to cut your family budgets (even in this time of explosive gas and food prices, and overall economic uncertainty), because government refuses to prioritize its budget?

Virginia’s transportation system is currently rooted in the 1932 Byrd Road Act. This law was good policy back in the depression, but it is completely out of date in the 21st Century. Virginia is only one of three states to continue to own and maintain all if its roads, and as we can see, it just doesn’t work (it’s no wonder why most states no longer do this).

Further, land-use decisions are reserved for the local governments, yet transportation decisions are made at the state level. The problem with that approach is you have local governments deciding what shopping center and residential development will go where, while the state is deciding what roads and other transportation infrastructure goes where. The local government can make land-use decisions that don’t make sense in terms of the transportation planning and the state can make transportation decisions that don’t make sense for the land-use decisions — and this disconnect is a major source of why transportation is continually a problem here.

In addition, the Virginia Department of Transportation seems largely inept at reducing traffic congestion and building projects that make the most sense — so shouldn’t we audit them to make sure we’re getting the most of your money? Also, private companies are hungry to get involved in our transportation programs here in Virginia, and we should make it easier for them to bring some of the private sector innovation (which makes drives our economy) into our Virginia roads, rail, and transit.

Finally, Virginia government is not suffering from a lack of cash. Since I first took office in 2004, we were running a $53 billion, two year budget. This year, we passed a $78 billion budget. If you do the math, that’s a nearly 50% increase in just the last 4 years. Not only is that incredible budget growth (and yet, little of that growth was prioritized for transportation), but most people I talk to haven’t gotten increases in their household incomes over the last 4 years of nearly 50%. Thus, why in the world should government grow its budget faster than your family grows its budget?

Moreso, the “Transportation Trust Fund” (TTF) in Virginia still has yet to be locked up (which means that government can raid those funds for other purposes at any time); and some existing transportation revenues actually don’t even go straight to the TTF (but rather the General Fund for other, unrelated spending).

There’s much to fix before we can credibly come to you and ask you to pay more — as it is, your current investment in transportation isn’t getting the return you deserve.

I’ve filed two bills for this special session: one that devolves road maintenance responsibility back to the local governments (but also gives all the money the state currently gets for that maintenance to the localities); and legislation to take a portion of the existing state sales tax and hand it over to regional transportation projects. The first bill would eliminate the disconnect between land-use decisions and transportation decisions that currently exists; while the second bill would provide hundreds of millions of dollars dedicated to transportation — without raising your taxes.

These are all excellent points with which I agree.  We need to firewall the transportation trust fund so revenues generated by transportation taxes cannot be spent on things other than transportation.  We need to ditch the 76 year-old Byrd system of road maintenance that predates the interstate highway system by a quarter of a century.  We need to place land-use planning and transportation decisions in the same hands so there is at least a modicum of coordination.  Chairman Frederick’s suggestions are solid and should serve as guideposts for whatever House and Senate GOPers ultimately coalesce around.  While they’re at it, they should go even further and repeal the Dillon Rule.  Only then will we begin to see real innovative solutions come to fruition.