Republicans, Democrats still disagree on roads
COMMENTARY
By R. Lee Ware (R – 65th) VIRGINIA HOUSE OF DELEGATES

Ware

Certainly there are challenges for the General Assembly in improving – and in sustaining – the state’s public transportation system, but we do not face a “transportation crisis.” Further, despite the mantra that the House of Delegates has not addressed transportation needs, the House has in fact advanced a responsible approach to every core need in state government including transportation.

No doubt transportation issues will once again dominate debate – and press coverage – when the General Assembly reconvenes next month. I intend again to support the House proposals outlined at the Special Session in September but ignored by the Senate and opposed by the Governor.

When anyone suggests that all we need do to “fix” our transportation system is increase taxes and pour more concrete, I point them to the notorious “mixing bowl” at Springfield where Interstates 95 and 495 converge. Despite the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars, indeed, because of the expenditure, traffic volumes only increase and gridlock worsens.

In other words, we won’t adequately address our transportation needs until we embrace precisely the combination of reforms advocated by the House majority.

For example, transportation needs have to be viewed within the state’s overall budget, which was increased by 19 percent this year. State spending over the past decade has increased by more than 10 percent a year – far more than the corresponding rises in taxpayers’ income, gross state product, and population. Spending for transportation has not only doubled in the past decade but has risen by 45 percent over the past four years alone.

In other words, the House majority has rightly recognized the need to rein in the growth in state spending – and the growth in taxes – as the prerequisite for any meaningful resolution of the rising demands on all state expenditures.

When the House reconvenes in January, the Republican majority will again propose $2.4 billion in additional spending for transportation over the next six years. This figure represents the largest financial commitment to transportation since 1986.

Importantly, the House plan proposes not only to spend more money on roads but to require significant reforms in the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Additionally, the House wants to ensure that we don’t just build more roads for more developments that only lead to more traffic, and hence, more congestion. Real reforms would include requirements that new projects not exacerbate urban sprawl, especially in northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

And, the House wants any new spending for transportation to address rail and other modes of public transit.

The importance of real reform of state transportation planning is self-evident to residents of Chesterfield and Powhatan. For while we are well served by existing roads including the Powhite Parkway and Route 288, Route 288 has spawned just the kind of housing and commercial developments that put additional pressures on secondary roads and on a wide range of taxpayer-dependent programs at the county level.

In other words, any element of “crisis” in our transportation programs arises not only from congestion but from poor use of land, the loss of open space and the consequent effects, often unforeseen, on the counties, from secondary roads to schools, to the whole panoply of considerations that come under the rubric of “quality of life.”

My own commitment is to emphasize this comprehensive approach to all issues, including headline-grabbing transportation issues, which come before the General Assembly next month.