Yesterday Creigh Deeds had an op ed in the Washington Post about which I wrote here the evening before in a diary titled Creigh Deeds steps up in Virginia. Today the Washington Post uses that as an occasion for a hard-hitting editorial with the title Honesty on Transportation, and the subtitle "Mr. Deeds has leveled with Virginia voters. Will they listen?"
I will very briefly explore the editorial below the fold. I encourage you to read it, and to pass it on to anyone you know in Virginia, and anyone who might be interested in the outcome of this race. I will also urge you to contribute to the Deeds campaign, which you can at his website
Yesterday Forbes Magazine for the 4th year in a row named Virginia the best state for business, a tribute to the administrations of Mark Warner, and now - despite the current budget crisis, of Tim Kaine. Bob McDonnell opposed the initiatives of both, which is one reason we need Creigh Deeds as governor.
And now to the editorial.
The editorial notes that Deeds has unequivocally called for higher taxes to fund Virginia's unmet transportation needs, describing that step as
His stance is nothing more or less than common sense: Virginia needs tens of billions of dollars in new revenue for roads, and it will not materialize without asking taxpayers -- the same taxpayers who rightly groan about traffic -- to foot a good part of the bill.
In that same opening paragraph it describe the plan of his Republican opponent, Bob McDonnell, as
smoke-and-mirrors, wing-and-a-prayer approach to transportation
The Post notes that as expected, the McDonnell campaign eagerly jumped all over this, running their old opposition to any tax playbook, and as the Post notes, betting that the electorate will be easily misled, and
too shortsighted to notice that the state has completely run out of road-building funds. In this fiscal year, Richmond will spend scarcely $1 million to build and improve roads in all of Northern Virginia -- a laughable sum when measured against the billions needed. Two years from now, state spending on new roads in Northern Virginia is projected to be precisely zero.
Ponder that for a moment. Right now Virginia is, as previously noted, considered by Forbes for the fourth year in a row the best state in which to do business. But if people can't get to work, or get deliveries, because of gridlock, will business still want to relocate, or to remain? NoVa is the economic engine that has been driving the state. Can you imagine ZERO DOLLARS for transportation for an entire year? How much further behind on the billions of unmet maintenance will that add?
And it is not just NoVa. To get from Richmond to Hampton Roads, one travels via I-64. I have done this many times, usually on the way to Williamsburg, a relatively small location on the path to the Hampton Roads area, with Newport News, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Hampton, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and more. For most of its way it is only 2-lanes in each direction. If you know the DC area, imagine if the Beltway were only 2 lanes on each loop, how restrictive that would be to the area, how bad the gridlock would be - which is pretty bad with 3-4-5 and 6 lanes at various points.
Expansion of I-64 could be paid largely with federal funds, but only if Virginia were able to come up with its share, with a dedicated source of funding. Absent that, the Old Dominion forgoes billions in federal funds that could help address the crisis of transportation that is now creeping across the state - in the I-81 corridor in the Valley, along Route 58 in Southside and Southwest.
Let's return to the editorial. It praises Deeds for being even more forthright than his notable predecessors, Warner and Kaine, on funding of transportation, even as it praises Warner for having in 2004 raised sufficient funding for schools, public safety and human services so that these areas have not suffered as badly during the current recession as they have in other states.
The Post then notes bluntly:
Over the next 20 years, Virginia will need to raise an extra $100 billion -- minimum -- if it is to maintain and expand a transportation network that will meet the state's growth. The commonwealth is business-friendly; it already runs a relatively tight ship, as repeated ratings and studies have shown. Further rounds of streamlining, consolidation and efficiencies will not yield major new savings, and hoping that a new economic boom will unclog the state's roads is wishful thinking.
There are other expressions one could use in place of "wishful thinking" - "fantasy" comes to mine. So does "deliberate untruth" except we don't shout out in public forums "You Lie!" McDonnell is not a stupid man, and the position he and other Republicans have been taking on funding transportation is so detached from reality hey have to know it.
But then, as we have seen with McDonnell's tap dancing on his thesis, honesty with the electorate and the press is not exactly one of his strong points. And after yesterday's editorial, there should be absolutely no doubt that it is an essential part of what Creigh Deeds brings to the table.
As to "You Lie!" - Republican Speaker of the House Bill Howell is using that self-same Joe Wilson as a fundraiser for the Virginia Republicans, so no one should have any doubt about what Republicans, in what is ground zero this election cycle, believe is the only thing they have to offer the voters of Virginia - fear and more fear, couched in untruths and worse.
The editorial says the Post will return to the details of McDonnell's plan for transportation another day. They then conclude
Suffice it to say that anyone who thinks that Virginia can get traffic moving or even slow the deterioration of its road system without fresh revenue -- and yes, a tax increase -- is living in an alternate reality. By his honesty, Mr. Deeds has now prepared the way for a mandate, should he be elected, to address the state's most critical problem.
Transportation IS the most pressing problem in the Old Dominion. Creigh Deeds has said he wants a bill to fix it in his first year. It is one reason that I am sure the Post will do all it can with a strong endorsement to changes the "should he be elected" to "when he is elected." That endorsement will make a major difference in the various parts of NoVa into which the paper's influence is felt.
In the meantime, we should be doing all we can to help this good and honest man address the issues of Virginia not through an ideological lens influenced by the likes of Pat Robertson - whom McDonnell still considers a mentor - but through the honest evaluation of the needs of the people of the Commonwealth.
Thanks for reading.
And Peace.