Tell the GOP members of the House of Delegates to defeat HB 6055 when it comes up for a vote today. This bill is bad policy pure and simple. It won’t solve our transportation problems and deserves to join its counterpart HB 3202 in the oblivion that the Virginia Supreme Court placed that legislation. Just because HB 6055 may have fixed the constitutional issues that brough HB 3203 down doesn’t mean that it is any better from a policy standpoint.
*** DEFEAT HB 6055 ***
Filed under: Action Alert!, Republicans, Transportation, Virginia General Assembly
The Republican legislators who I have talked with or emailed on this subject, with the exception of Bob Marshall, seem to be out of ideas. The herd mentality is that they will pass this crap off as a “fix” to the problem.
I am convinced that forces that remain invisible to the typical citizen are trying to control this issue for their own financial interests. I don’t see many Republicans or Democrats standing up for our citizens.
Speaker Howell and Phil Hamilton should be investigated for corruption. The appearance of corruption is present when these men and others suddenly and without any call from the citizens to do so, start pushing hard for privately owned toll roads here in Virginia. Either these men are dumb or they are dishonest, those are the only two conclusions left regarding their advocacy of these foreign owned toll roads.
Related to this issue: I heard a radio ad run by that corporate lobbying group, Americans for Prosperity (just the fluffy name should send up red flags and sound warning alarms). The ad claims that those darned Democrats want a thirty-three percent gas tax increase.
What they don’t say, of course, is that the average driver would be only impacted $15 annually by the gas tax increase, and such a measure would make for a simple and easily audited revenue stream for transportation. If you add this measure to targeted cuts, some gas-guzzler fees and a bond issue,our transportation issue would be resolved.
However, a clean, clear-cut revenue stream, such as a gas tax increase does not create business opportunities for multinational toll road companies to rape Virginians for the next several decades. I can see where AFP is on this issue.
[...] the General Assembly reconvenes today, much chatter is going on across the blogs about 1st Congressional District GOP Chiar Tom Foley’s letter (which advances nothing, by the way) and how Republicans must now make a principled stand to block [...]