Sunday, May 11, 2008
Editorial: A map to bypass the gridlock
Rank-and-file lawmakers need to quit moaning that leadership won't solve the transportation funding impasse. They have the power to break free.
From the RoundTable blog
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Virginia lawmakers will get another shot June 23 to find a way to fund transportation projects. Unless a majority of House delegates are willing to stand up to Speaker Bill Howell, this session will do nothing more than color them three-time losers.
For three years, Virginians have pleaded with the General Assembly to adequately fund transportation projects. For just as long, Howell has blocked a comprehensive solution. He shows no sign that he is now capable of reason. Lawmakers have little choice but to break free from Howell's hold if they harbor any desire to deliver to Virginians a real transportation funding plan.
The governor and Senate Democrats appear willing to back a necessary tax increase; it's just a matter of which taxes and how much.
They can't do it without House Republicans. But they can do it without House Republican leadership, if delegates find the courage to break from an unyielding party leader who has been ceded far too much power.
Fear of retribution from Howell and other leaders is not cause enough for rank-and-file members again to fall down on the job.
Besides, traditional Republican allies have just given them cover -- though Howell's obstinacy has thickened to where he can't even hear them.
A coalition of 25 business groups, including the state Chamber of Commerce, said last week it would support a gas or sales tax increase to raise $1 billion a year to pay for transportation.
Howell dismissed the plea. "They're supposed to be the voice of business. I don't see how it helps business to increase their costs."
Nor, apparently, does Howell see how a failing transportation network harms industry, making it unable to move goods efficiently, or that businesses suffer productivity losses when employees are stuck in traffic.
Howell's vision is clouded by anti-tax cataracts, and it's doubtful he will have them removed prior to the special session.
Yet lawmakers still think they need Howell to strike a deal. About two dozen legislators from Northern Virginia and Tidewater -- the two most populous regions with the most critical problems -- met last week to discuss the need for a statewide solution. They bemoaned that without a buy-in from Howell, it's going nowhere.
Instead of waiting on Howell, the recently dubbed "new urban majority" should reach out to rural and Southwest Virginia to court the necessary votes. If they craft the right bill, they can alleviate their immediate crisis, address long-term statewide concerns and ease concerns of Virginians in the rest of the state that they'll be left out.
