Road bills drive political wedge

The News Virginian
Published: July 10, 2008

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, fancied by some as a running mate to Barack Obama, has met a qualification expressed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson via the hot mic. The governor shuffled away from a special session of the General Assembly adjourned early Thursday lacking what he considered vital - approval of his $1 billion transportation proposal or an alternative and an accompanying triumph to accentuate his political virility. Democrats, of all people, helped snip the essentials from Kaine, inflicting a kind of pain uniquely felt by Obama.
Seeking to raise money for road projects in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, Kaine had proposed increases in annual vehicle registration fees by $10 and the car sales tax by 1 percent, among other hikes. The House, which happens to include Democrats, rejected this notion 98-0 favoring a bill by Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, whose prospects for success were ostensibly brighter.
Saslaw’s alternative would have increased by 6 cents over six years the state’s gas tax, which currently is 17.5 cents a gallon. He also proposed bumping up the sales tax by 0.25 percent and the car titling tax by 0.5 percent.
House Democrats removed the gas tax hike, rightly considered an offense to constituents’ fiscal sensibilities amid the fuel crisis, but it could not save Saslaw’s bill from a 59-39 defeat in the Republican-controlled chamber. Six Democrats joined Republicans in opposition. Also left in the smoldering ruins of doomed bills was one that would have financed only projects in Northern Virginian and Hampton roads, where traffic congestion is the source of the cry for more road money.
The sum of the parts left the parties stabbing fingers in the air in the direction of the other side. Meanwhile, tax money bleeds in the direction of the drain. Kaine spent six weeks on the town hall circuit, explaining the necessity of his billion-dollar bill and scolding the recalcitrant anti-tax masses who dared oppose it. The special session called by Kaine and convened June 23 cost $20,000 a day, kindling criticism of the governor for failure to obtain consensus before rounding up the lawmaking hoards.
“All I can conclude is the governor called us into this special session so he can embark on some political grandstanding maneuver this is going to accomplish nothing for the people of Virginia,” Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling groused to the Washington Post.
Democrats, with Kaine leading the pack, reached for their clichés, calling Republicans obstructionists and referring, with eyes widened, to the “transportation crisis,” the preferred parlance when the party of the left wants what it cannot get. “… House Republican leadership, once again, stood in the way ...” Kaine grumbled.
And with them stood Democrats who sniffed at Kaine’s bill, which lacked a sponsor, and detected the pungent odor of defeat. Saslaw lamented: “It leaves the state in the same mess we were in four weeks ago.” He misses a crucial point surely not lost on those who would pay the tax bill. Virginians are in the same mess, not a larger one. Their bills are increasing, but not their tax bills.
The question is not whether to invest in transportation but where to trim other costs in an effort to cover necessities. Such notions provoke apoplexy in the left, which might explain why state spending has doubled over the last decade to $77 billion. With the luxury of a robust economy now absent, increasing fees and levies would give many taxpayers the sense of having been kicked by government in a place where they already are hurting. Kaine, like Obama, should recognize the feeling.