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Va. GOP Lawmakers Reject Kaine's Latest Transportation Fix
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/ content/ article/ 2008/ 05/ 12/ AR2008051200973....
RICHMOND, May 12 -- Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine proposed Monday raising $1.1 billion in taxes and fees to build and repair roads, including boosting the sales tax by 1 cent in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
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Truth In Reporting: The Special Tax Session
http://www.familyfoundationblog.com/?p=260Governor Tim Kaine surprised absolutely no one when he rolled out his transportation — er, make that tax — plan Monday. It includes nearly $1 billion tax and fee increases under the guise of fixing transportation for what he and the media mistakenly call a transportation special session of the General Assembly to begin June 23. Truth in reporting requires us to call it a Special Tax Session. Governor Kaine’s plan doesn’ leave out much. It increases the sales tax in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia from 5 to 6 percent, something rejected by voters in those regions in 2002. Governor Kaine also would have us pay more for cars by increasing from 3 to 4 percent the motor-vehicle titling tax as well as another $10 increase in the cost to register our vehicles. Governor Kaine doesn’t stop there: He also proposes an increase in the grantor’s, or property seller’s tax, of 10 cents per $100, just as the real estate market is tanking. Detect a theme here? How anyone can fathom adding a tax to house sales right now, on top of the fee for mortgage and refinance originations as part of former Democrat Governor Mark Warner’s 2004 record tax increase? (By the way, does he like his successor’s plan?) What does this show of Governor Kaine’s understanding of basic economics? Why do he and other liberals complain about getting branded as big taxers and spenders when they thoughtlessly and reflexively propose more tax increases for every problem (real or imagined)? The fact that spending cuts and prioritizing never seriously are considered shows a true lack of imagination, leadership and courage. There are at least two reasons why we do not support increasing taxes for “fixing transportation.” One is the lack of a constitutional amendment to protect Virginia’s Transportation Trust Fund from being raided. The other is the depression era law that controls how Virginia funds its transportation needs. Until those two issues are resolved, Virginians should not be asked to send more money to Richmond to fund a broken system. It is a misnomer that conservatives are anti-tax. We’re anti-tax increases when taxpayer money is wasted on useless programs that often are counterproductive, when taxpayer money is not used for constitutional purposes, when politicians want to start new programs (especially during a shaky economy) to buy their “legacy” (pre-K, anyone?), and when government is so big and bloated that waste and abuse are rampant. When spending is cut in real terms and re-prioritized, and only constitutional functions of government are funded, then let’s talk about taxes.
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Virginia’s Transportation Problem
http://jeremybeales.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/virginias-trans...Virginia has a transportation problem. Traffic is badly clogged in both Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads and the primary funding mechanism in Virginia’s 2007 Transportation Bill was largely struck down by the Virginia Supreme Court in March. That was after the other funding mechanism in the bill, the abusive driver fees, had to be repealed because of voter backlash. Virginians have been complaining about transportation for years now and the General Assembly has completely failed to deal with the issue. As of now, not only does Virginia lack adequate capacity on its roadways, but it is facing a shortfall in funds for road maintenance. But Virginia’s General Assembly is getting another chance to get transportation right. Governor Kaine has called for a June Special Session of the Assembly to deal with transportation. Everyone more or less agrees agrees what needs to be done. As a coalition of Virginia business groups said, “We believe the Commonwealth’s transportation infrastructure is a critical component of its economic success and the quality of life of all Virginians. Additional investments of at least $1 billion annually must be made to sustain maintenance and construction costs,” the letter said. “The most appropriate solution is a package of revenue generators that are simple, sustainable, and sufficient and accrue from broad-based revenue options.” The only question is how to raise the $1 billion a year Virginia needs. Governor Kaine just proposed his plan to raised the needed money. He wants to increase the sales tax by 1 percent in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, raise the grantor’s tax, a tax on home sellers, from 10 cents per $100 of assessed value to 35 cents, increase the sales tax on cars by 1 percent and increase the annual car registration fee by $10. So what is the Virginia GOP’s response? According to the Washington Post: Del. David B. Albo, a Fairfax Republican involved in transportation negotiations, said Kaine’s plan had a “0.000 percent chance” of winning approval. Many see Kaine’s tax proposal as a way of reaching out to Republicans in the House of Delegates. According to Jim Bacon, a conservative Virginia policy blogger, Kaine appeared to adopt key elements of the plan — a motor vehicle sales tax, a vehicle registration fee and a grantor’s tax — because House Republicans embraced them last year when they crafted HB 3202, although not in precisely the same configuration. In his naivite, the governor no doubt assumed that if GOP legislators liked those levies last year, they would be OK with them this year. So, how did those charges become so unpalatable all of a sudden? It’s hard to avoid the suspicion that they are just opposed to anything that Kaine might propose? Republicans aren’t the only ones who are down on Kaine’s plan. Liberals like Raising Kaine and Not Larry Sabato have blasted the plan, arguing that the sales tax increase is overly regressive and will hurt the working poor. I largely agree that the sales tax isn’t the way to go. To begin with, it’s regressive. Sales taxes hit the poor the hardest and increase their tax burden as a proportion of their income the most. Secondly, it has absolutely no connection to the people who will use the roads that are built with it. It will tax everyone at the same rate regardless of how much they use the roads or what choices they make. Jim Bacon is right in that “This highway funding mechanism will do nothing — repeat N-O-T-H-I-N-G — to encourage drivers to seek alternate modes of transportation or otherwise change the behavior that has created this crisis in the first place.” Thirdly, the sales tax is only increased in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. Now, I know there is a somewhat compelling argument to be made that since NoVa and Hampton Roads are the localities that need transportation improvements the most they should pay for it. It’s a logic that is probably very persuasive to Delegates from the rest of Virginia. But that logic is wrong. Every year, NoVa and Hampton Roads pay far more into state coffers than they get back. Taxpayers in these two regions have subsidized the rest of the state for decades. It is time they finally got some help back from the rest of the state to pay for transportation improvements that will improve the economic climate in NoVa and Hampton Roads, which will in turn increase the amount of tax money they send down to Richmond to subsidize the rest of the state. It’s an everybody wins scenario. Lastly, its already been rejected. In 2002 Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads had the opportunity to pass a referendum which would have increased their regional sales tax. The referendum failed miserably. Now Kaine is trying to bring back a solution that citizens rejected directly and put it through the General Assembly. A gas tax increase would be a far better solution. As Lowell at Raising Kaine wrote: Virginia’s gas tax is among the lowest in the nation and hasn’t been raised since 1986, which means that inflation has seriously eroded its value. Currently, the Virginia gas tax constitutes only about 5% of the total price at the pump, and that percentage is declining all the time. Looked at the other way around, every 1-cent-per-gallon increase in the gas tax raises about $65 million per year. This means that to raise $860 million per year, the gas tax would have to be raised about 14 cents per gallon. This may sound like a lot, but to put it in perspective, the overall price of gasoline has risen more than $2.20 per gallon since May 2002 — about 16 times the 14 cents per gallon mentioned above. A gas tax benefit would have other benefits too. It would reduce the demand for fuel slightly, thereby helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It would be paid directly by the people using the roads, making heavier users pay more and allowing people to save on the taxes my making different choice in how they get around. Senate Democrats are on board for a gas tax hike. They passed one last session and are willing to do it again. However, its the no tax GOP who is unwilling to even consider a gas tax hike. One final criticism. Kaine’s plan doesn’t envision any way to prioritize what projects get funding, beyond repairs to existing roads come first. To quote Bacon yet again, No objective methodology for setting priorities. Nothing in this bill requires the commonwealth to establish an objective methodology for prioritizing projects based on their effectiveness at mitigating traffic congestion. There is nothing to prevent the usual suspects with the most to gain from boring into the political system like beetles into tree bark, canoodling administrators, making donations to elected officials, attending obscure public hearings, and bird dogging projects through the bureaucratic maze. There is at lest one real positive in the Kaine plan. The grantor’s tax increase would be dedicated to a Transportation Change Fund, which would “increase investment in transit, rail, and innovative solutions to reduce traffic congestion like teleworking and ridesharing.” That is a major improvement over the way things are done. That would put about $155 million annually into mass transit, which would help create alternatives to driving for Virginians. Kaine is at least trying here. He’s been willing to anger his political base, including the blog that was created to elect him, in order to propose a plan he had reason to think would be palatable to GOP lawmakers. But the House Republicans are saying “no” once again. It is pretty sad to see. Kaine was elected on an unambiguous platform of transportation reform. He’s now in his third year as governor and has yet to get a long-term, workable plan passed. Every time he has tried he has run into the roadblock of House Republicans. Even when the State Senate was in Republican hands Kaine was able to work with them and come to agreements. Yet the only thing House Republicans have proposed thus far is what turned into the awful 2007 transportation compromise that has already been almost entirely struck down or repealed. And Republicans wonder why there are only a handful of them left in Northern Virginia. I’ll leave the end of this post to Jim Bacon. Virginians should take Kaine’s imperfect plan as a jumping off point. He has moved the ball forward at least somewhat on transportation and hopefully it won’t all come to naught again. Bacon addresses his list to “no tax” Republicans. But it really goes for everyone. Here’s what we need. (1) Create a mechanism for actually raising money. We can’t build a transportation system for the 21st century with fiscal tricks and legerdemain. (2) Be sustainable over time, and they need to be structured so that legislators can’t lay their hands on the tax money for other purposes. (3) Display a direct and transparent nexus between who pays and who benefits from transportation projects. (4) Address the “demand” side of the transportation equation, in other words, incentivize people to seek alternative means of mobility and access. (5) Incentivize citizens and developers to adopt more transportation-efficient human settlement patterns.
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Pointless Already: The VA Transportation Bill
http://blacknell.net/dynamic/2008/05/13/pointless-already-th...It seems like it was just yesterday I was saying that I intended to do a better job of paying attention to the (Democratic) Virginia Governor Tim Kaine’s proposed transportation bill this time around. Wait, it was. And yet already the usual flat earth Republicans (who control the Virginia House) have declared that they intend to - once again - just stick their fingers in their ears and yell “nyah nyah nyah, can’t hear you!”, making any serious examination of the issue near pointless. Short of Charleton Heston bringing a burning bush into the VA GOP caucus that instructs them to actually *do* something (and even then . . . ), it looks like Virginia’s Republicans are planning to simply sit and watch NoVA’s traffic strangle itself. There’s a lesson about a goose and a golden egg here, but these Republicans aren’t exactly the forward looking sort. (For real insight into the Virginia Republican mind on this, see Waldo’s helpful translation of Attorney General Bob McDonnell’s take on the bill.) This is one of the reasons I’m not entirely kidding when I say that Northern Virginia would be better off on its own. As a result of Virginia’s Constitution, the localities in Northern Virginia can’t do anything without the permission of the rest of the state. Despite the fact that the most economically robust region in Virginia can afford to fix its own problems, it instead exists in virtual gridlock. The Republican politicians in the House reject any transportation solution involving taxes, thus burnishing their No New Taxes Ever credentials for the voters back home (places where “traffic” involves two cars approaching a one-lane bridge, it seems). These Republicans trade addressing a fundamental public need of the citizens of Northern Virginia for their own personal political advantage. And there’s nothing Northern Virginia can do about it. There’s no Republican plan to do anything about transportation, and there won’t be, as long as they’ve got the power to block progress. So maybe it’s not the best idea to spend too much time picking through the details of a bill that, as necessary as it is, looks to be going nowhere. Photo: Elephants holding up traffic (admittedly not in Virginia)
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Delegate Abuser Fees SPEAKS
http://notlarrysabato.typepad.com/doh/2008/05/delegate-abuse...From the WaPo: "Del. David B. Albo, a Fairfax Republican involved in transportation negotiations, said Kaine's plan had a "0.000 percent chance" of winning approval." This is how Tim Kaine stays so popular. All the voters see is the idiots in the General Assembly attacking him, and assume he must be doing a good job. I mean if Delegate Abuser Fees doesn't like the bill....
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Gov. Kaine’s new Transportation funding plan
http://bryanault.wordpress.com/2008/05/13/gov-kaines-new-tra...MORE TAXES! The details of the plan are in this Washington Post article. Please contact your state Delegate and Senator to voice your concerns. You can find out who your state representatives are using the GA’s Who’s My Legislator page. Below is the letter I sent to Del. Mark Sickles and state Sen. Toddy Puller regarding the proposal: Sen. Puller and Del. Sickles, First, I would like to thank both of you for your support on the “abuser fees” issue and commend you for your work in getting the fees repealed. I am contacting you today about several concerns I have regarding Gov. Kaine’s new transportation funding bill. For starters, I’d like to know what measures- if any- were taken to use existing funds more efficiently and/or cut waste before new taxes are proposed. The state government should ensure that it is using the people’s money as responsibly as possible before requesting more money from its constituents. Second, the governor is proposing a $10 increase in the vehicle registration fee. Any flat tax is a regressive tax and hurts lower income Virginians first. Granted, it is only $10, but Virginians already pay registration fees, safety inspections, emissions inspections (in some areas), decal fees (in most areas) and the infamous personal property tax, owning a vehicle in VA is already very expensive. Public transportation is insufficient in most of the state, so owning a car is a necessity for most people and the government already capitalizes off that fact more than it should. Third, the governor is proposing a regional 1% sales tax increase in Hampton Roads and Northern VA. Gas prices are increasing. Food prices are increasing. Energy prices are likely to increase in the near future- everything costs more and incomes are not keeping pace. Adding to the sales tax will only serve to make everything (except food) that much more expensive. It is equitable in the sense that it is a tax on consumption- those who consume more will pay more. However that does not make it any more affordable for middle and lower income Virginians. Finally, the government is proposing a 25 cent increase in the grantors’ tax. This is an improvement over the 40 cent increase in the disastrous HB3202. However, anything that increases the cost of real estate transactions during a credit crunch and a period of decreasing home values is simply bad public policy. One way to make up some of the revenue is a gas tax. I realize this is politically unpopular with gas prices already being so high, but it is as close to a user fee as we can get on this issue. Those who buy more gas in VA use the roads more, and hence should pay a larger share of road construction. As my representatives to the General Assembly, I trust that you will take these concerns to the Special Session. Thank you for your time.
