Sunday, April 19, 2009
Beauty and the beastly road
Luanne Traud
Recent columns
- Marking a difficult anniversary
- My daughter, the voter
- A few new Voices would be nice
- A rush to legislate
From the RoundTable blog
As I backed out of the driveway last Saturday morning to start our six-hour trek, two thoughts collided:
I wondered what colors would pop through the morning shroud to brighten the journey. And I hoped we'd have an early enough start so that Interstate 81 wouldn't be unbearably congested. It's hard to soak up the beauty of red buds and forsythia while fellow travelers dance the bumper-car weave.
I was fortunate on both accounts. The spring pallet unfolded a rich mixture of greens laced with vibrant purples and yellows, and traffic was steady.
I allowed my mind to wander and settle on a thought that had eluded me the past few busy days. Each Tuesday afternoon, I scroll through the answers submitted by our Voices of the Valleys panelists and cull a few for publication in Horizon. I had asked them to offer their ideas as to how Virginia should fund transportation.
Voices is a rich mixture of volunteers who have agreed to debate each other online (you can find them at www.roanoke.com/voices). They are liberal, conservative, moderate, libertarian, just about any political or nonpolitical persuasion.
They suggested Virginia fund transportation by increasing fuel taxes, registration fees, the sales tax, titling fees, income taxes, trucking fees; collecting tolls; adding a tax for miles driven. Then they debated the merit of each source of revenue, posturing whether it was regressive, progressive, targeted one group, spread the burden, and so on. All good, robust arguments.
The thought that nagged me, but that I failed to grasp until my car trip was this: Not a one of them said the Virginia Department of Transportation was flush with money and that it just isn't spending wisely.
That, though, seems to be the prevailing ideology of House Republicans who could actually do something to keep VDOT from becoming nothing more than a pothole-patching, grass-mowing placeholder. So wedded are they to a raising-taxes-is-bad philosophy that they have been profoundly deaf to pleas to adequately fund a vital function of government.
Maybe the people haven't spoken loudly enough. Unless we do so, and soon, the state agency charged with improving the way we move ourselves and goods will soon be forced into maintenance mode only.
The warning signs are there. In February, the Commonwealth Transportation Board revised its six-year plan, cutting $2.6 billion in spending because of revenue shortfalls. Not only were long-sought and valuable projects eliminated, the board reduced VDOT's work force from 9,000 to 7,500 employees.
That elicited hardly a peep from the public. It wasn't until the agency began a series of hearings on its proposal to close most interstate rest areas that people began to pay attention. And they will be sure to notice weeds choking out roadside flower beds and grass turning to hay.
The public has been silent mostly after expressing outrage two years ago when legislators adopted an irresponsible plan to fund transportation by collecting abusive driver fees for traffic violations and by foisting difficult tax-raising decisions onto regional boards. The fees were revoked and the boards were ruled unconstitutional, leaving VDOT without new funding streams.
The recession has exacerbated problems for VDOT.
As The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot noted in a March 25 editorial, our state has become so desperate, VDOT "was forced to rely solely on borrowed money to come up with the matching dollars necessary to qualify for federal aid. ... As mind-bogglingly bad as this sounds, it's actually worse. State revenues are too weak to underwrite the new bonds, so VDOT dipped into its cash reserves ... twice."
Are enough people paying attention? Are the right people paying attention?
Sometimes I wonder. As important and as central as the issue is to every one of our readers, I also know this: Mentioning transportation funding causes eyes to become as laden as if they just guided a car through heavy congestion for eight hours in a steady rain with windshield wipers whispering a lullaby.
It's one of those subjects to which we all know we should pay attention -- and will, just as soon as we clean the hall closet.
We rarely pay attention until something goes haywire, like when a bridge collapses. Then we want to know how our bridges rate. Could that happen here? We remember reading once that Virginia has 1,730 structurally deficient bridges, but figure the state wouldn't let us drive on them if they were that bad. Would it?
Ask yourself: If a state can't afford to keep rest rooms open, what else will it skimp on?
If the answer makes you queasy, and you're willing to pay a nickel more at the gas pump or a few dollars more in payroll taxes, then speak out.
Traud is a member of The Roanoke Times editorial board.
