Bob McDonnell Offers Detailed Transportation Plan; Dems Spin Their Wheels In The Mud

Bob McDonnell today offered a very thorough and comprehensive transportation plan that should please everyone except for Creigh “What’s In Your Wallet?” Deeds and his supporters.

Here are the key points:

Privatize Virginia’s Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) and dedicate proceeds to transportation

Pass legislation to capture increased revenue from growth in port operations, and invest in regional transportation projects

Take percentage of sales tax collected in Northern Virginia and put in regional transportation account

Issue $3 billion in available bonds for transportation, and support future bond issuance of $1 billion for highly congested areas

Expand 70mph speed limit, currently only allowed on stretch of Interstate 85 in southern Virginia, to sections of other interstates in Commonwealth

Dedicate percentage of new revenue growth to transportation

Spend 75% of future surplus funds on transportation

Dramatically expand Public-Private Partnership agreements for major priority projects

Protect Transportation Trust Fund

Audit VDOT to find and eliminate waste and inefficiencies; Seek greater autonomy from time-consuming federal regulations

Seek federal approval for use of 2nd and 3rd year stimulus dollars for transportation projects now

Support HOT lanes

Enact border tolling of traffic coming into Virginia from North Carolina along I-85 and I-95

Dedicate percentage of revenue from future offshore drilling to transportation

Prioritize transportation projects. Top of list: Widen I-66 in and out of Beltway; Complete, within budget and on time, rail to Dulles; Complete I-495 and I-395/95 HOT Lane Projects; Upgrade Route 460; Find consensus for Third Crossing and move forward; Build High Speed Passenger Rail; Improve I-81; Coalfields Expressway Completion

Provide telework tax credits

Create bipartisan transportation task force, led by former governors and congressmen, to evaluate Virginia’s transportation system and propose improvements

Employ smart traffic technologies, light synchronization and new traffic management systems

The full plan can be read here.

You just have to love how Deeds and the VA Dems are trying to spin this.

First, they bring out a 16-month old quote from McDonnell that they try to make look brand new:

“‘I don’t have a particular plan or vision,’ said McDonnell when
queried yesterday in a conference call with reporters on how he would fix the 2007 transportation plan gutted last month by the Virginia Supreme Court.” (Richmond Times Dispatch, 3/26/08)

Perhaps they should look at a much more recent quote from their own nominee:

“I’m not going to tie myself to any specific plan to fund transportation,” Deeds said (Virginian-Pilot, July 20, 2009).

Yeah, that WAS yesterday.

Then, they state that McDonnell’s plan would

Drain $1 billion from the General Fund– a key source of public
school funding–by diverting a percentage of the sales tax in Northern Virginia to transportation

Guess what?  The General Fund is a key source of funding for just about everything in the state budget.  What it all comes down to is setting priorities.  There can be room enough for both education and transportation.  And never mind that Virginia state gas taxes go into the state’s general fund and are currently being spent on things other than transportation.  (Plus what is with the Dems hating on Northern Virginia all of a sudden?)

And yes, they really did say the following about McDonnell’s plan:

[It would w]eaken future increases in public education funding by requiring that a percentage of future growth revenue over 3% be devoted to transportation.

Future increases?  I’m sorry, but in the real world, that is NOT a cut.

If you didn’t get their theme that Bob McDonnell hates children, teachers and schools, the Dems trot out one last item:

Use the proceeds from selling the Port of Virginia to fund roads
instead of schools.

The morons at DPVA didn’t even get that right as the plan doesn’t sell the Port of Virginia.  The reference to the Port has to do with future economic activity attributable to it.

The bottom line is this.  Bob McDonnell has come up with a detailed plan addressing very specific transportation challenges and funded it without raising taxes.  Deeds and the Dems have not offered anything of the sort and have shown their hand — by refusing to look at existing revenues and resources to fund transportation, they are by omission stating that their answer is to raise our taxes.

Let’s look at Deeds’ most recent statement on this issue again:

“During his first year in office, Creigh will make it his top priority to find a workable, creative transportation solution,” Deeds wrote in his economic development plan.

“I’m not going to tie myself to any specific plan to fund transportation,” Deeds said (Virginian-Pilot, July 20, 2009).

That’s right.  Bob McDonnell has laid out his transportation plan for all to see.  Creigh Deeds just yesterday said that we may be 18-months away from him offering a solution.  We’ll just have to elect him and trust him to come up with it by then.

I think not.