Posted on 01/22/2007 5:29:05 AM PST by shrinkermd
Virginia was once a solidly conservative Republican state, but in recent years it has tilted Democratic. A big reason for the shift is the GOP's recent love affair with higher taxes. In the 1990s Republican Governors George Allen and Jim Gilmore won sweeping victories running as tax cutters. Then in 2004 Richmond Republicans enacted the largest tax increase in the commonwealth's history -- a $1 billion hike in sales and tobacco taxes. Now they are flirting with another tax hike even though the state has a Blue Ridge Mountain-high $900 million budget surplus.
Why? The hot political issue in northern Virginia is traffic congestion. Though the state budget has doubled in 10 years, road building hasn't kept pace with population. "Not a penny of the 2004 tax increase went to fund the state's highest need, roads," fumes GOP state Senator Ken Cucinelli.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I can't read anymore - I am disgusted. Kiss VA goodbye as a red state.
Governments at evry level in the USA have proven endlessly that they are irresponsible with money. The last thing government needs is MORE money.
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. - H. L. Mencken
[E]lections amount to no more than choosing between the scum that floats to the top of the barrel and the dregs that settle to the bottom. - L. Neil Smith
Giving power and money to Congress is like giving liquor and car keys to teenage boys. - P.J. O'Rourke
Compromise is: getting rid of your principles a little bit at a time. - Patrick Lear
Your optimism is admirable.
Spreading DC cancer. There was a time when Montgomery Co, MD and Northern VA were quite different.
I don't have any problem with raising fees on cars and trucks to pay for road construction. That's how road construction should be financed--not thru general tax revenues. Maybe I'd throw gas taxes into the mix as well. The idea is to hand the bill for these roads to the people who are using them, and preferably in proportion to their use.
During an economic boom, like we've had the past 5 years or so, government coffers swell, and just like drunken sailers, politicians, liberal AND conservative alike, can't resist spending it.
BS! For the most part it's the libs migrating to VA and bringing along their political poison.
Tax hiking Republicans lead to Democrat victories.
Works every time.
A lot of it has to do with the boom in Northern Virginia. NoVa is where the population and the money are now concentrated and unfortuantely a lot of these newbies are lib or lib-leaning.
They already tax the heck out of cars and trucks in VA. I'm just not sure where all that money goes.
It's part of a national trend. The Northeast is solidly 'Rat and the blue tide from there is inching southward and westward. Before '06, it had already picked off PA, and in '06 OH went blue. So the Great Lakes are pretty much ringed with blue except for IN, a lone fortress resisting the tide (for now). VA will likely be the first southern state to fall to the wave of blue unless something dramatic changes. If VA and OH go 'Rat in the '08 Presidential contest, it's time to say hello to President Hillary or President Obama, because I just don't see where we go to replace the electoral votes of those states.
I'm only a stone's throw from the NC border. If they make things too bad I'll just jump ship. I doubt NC would be much better though. I'll have to remember to change my FR flag. :p
That's the problem. They use it for other things.
Thank you for calling it as it is. It's the growing liberal population in NoVA that is moving the state more to the left.
Well said.
"Governments at evry level in the USA have proven endlessly that they are irresponsible with money."
Correction. REPUBLICANS at every level in the USA have proven endlessly that they are irresponsible with money.
If I recall the 2004 increase was first posed by Mark Warner as a response to the brief economic downturn (esp. the dot-bomb casualties in NOVA).
When that proved not to be quite a big problem, the proposed increase was justified by a need to improve NOVA roads.
Next time around I hope the voters will demand a real plan before allowing the legislature to raise taxes. Anything that begins with "more roads in NOVA" should be suspect, since there is simply no room for "more roads in NOVA", esp. inside the Beltway.
It's not the entire state that's going blue, only the nothernmost region adjacent to DC/MD, whose epicenter is Alexandria and Arlington but has grown to include Vienna, Fairfax, Falls Church, and Reston.
The people of VA aren't the only ones using the roads nor just by people who own vehicles. Using your logic, only peope who have children in school should have their property taxes used for education. I also despise the personal property tax on cars, which is separate from the state income tax.
That's why I say throw in the gas tax. The gas tax is a better indicator of the amount of use anyway.
"Only" the part of the state with the highest concentration of population.
I don't have a problem with that.
The people of VA aren't the only ones using the roads nor just by people who own vehicles.
That isn't what they're suggesting. Tolls are a viable option in this area. That way the folks that actually use the roads would be the ones paying for them.
Generally, I am not in favor of compartmentalizing taxes and earmarking the money only for certain uses. It hampers the efficient management of the money and handcuffs administrators. It reminds me of the silly nonsense of a lockbox for SS. Let fixing the roads be a line item on the regular state budget and let the legislature decide how much to devote to it on an annual basis.
Maybe if the GOP actually DID something about traffic all along instead of simply fleecing Northern Virginia, and yes that includes the ohhh sooo loved Gilmore and Allen.
You have metro stations in Maryland twice as far out from DC than Virginia has. Yet the population of Fairfax and Loudoun county have been SCREAMING for metro stations for decades. Virginia GOP simply REFUSES to look at the traffic problems in Northern Virginia and they are paying for it. There should be metro stations in Fairfax, Centreville, Gainsville and Manassas in one line and Tyson's Corner, Herndon, dulles, Ashburn and Leesburgh on another if any politician with a brain saw what ANY Northern Virginia resident could have foreseen 20 years ago.
But instead the State Government would rather watch the goose that laid the golden egg turn political parties in hopes of a fix, since it's obvious the GOP doesn't give a damn about Northern Virginia and it's #1 stated problem for the last 20 years - TRAFFIC.
Meanwhile, I 81 is falling apart before your eyes.
I think they have spent the money designated for repair for something else. They have stolen the hiway funds.
Idiotic behavior by a ruling class of Republicans?? The hell you say.
God help us if they make every major road a toll road. I certainly don't want that to happen in NOVA. What's next, putting toll booths on 495?
Pretty accurate rendering. We also have Colorado in the West turning bluer. Pathetic, I agree. Minnesota might go Republican if we make inroads, and if voter fraud in Philadelphia can be overcome, Pennsylvania might turn.
Another possible pick could be combatting the deep blue city of Detroit. Think about it: overcoming that stronghold of 'rat infestation in Michigan could make it a Republican state.
You might say I'm dreaming, but it could happen.
There is already a plan underway to connect Metro to Dulles and Tysons corner. The state and USG are funding it. The only fly in the ointment is a group that wants to put a tunnel under Tyson's rather than the elevated track. There are four stops in Tyson's alone.
I don't use the roads that frequently, those that do should ante up the cost for the upkeep. Might make some folks slow down a bit too.
""Only" the part of the state with the highest concentration of population."
True enough.
The roads are important to everyone. They are vital to the economy of the state. It has nothing to do with whether YOU use the roads or not. You certainly benefit from them everytime you go to the grocery store.
The folks from MD DC, PA and points north and east are getting off scott free when using these roads. It's time they shared the cost of some of the burden they are creating.
If there was actually a revenue shortfall, I'd agree with you.
But the state has been running on a surplus ever since Mark Warner's unnecessary tax hike. They didn't use that money to address real needs such as transportation.
THAT'S why this is wrong.
I believe gubmints have found that not fixing roads is a sure way to get tax increases one way or another. "We need more money for roads!" is a real sticking point with folks who drive (um, that's...EVERYONE!) and if you don't keep roads fixed you can always have a new tax to pull out of people's arses.
People in the government at every level, Democrats and Republicans, men and women, black and white, have endlessly proven they are irresponsible with money.
Better?
Good idea!
All you folks who get to the grocery store by riding a magic carpet or by clicking your heels together three times, take heed.
Everybody who drives there in their car (and pays gas taxes to do so), just move on to the next message....
So now what?
I know. It's a radical idea. But Texas just recently "found" some $7 billion that should have gone to pay for roads. Instead, it ended up paying for yet another day labor site and some social programs. Now, we've got the original gas/registration taxes... PLUS they are hitting us with tolls roads.
So yeah, I'm willing to pay for roads, but I'm not willing to fund every crack brained "fleece the public" scheme some political whore dreams up.
That's right. The people who have kids in school should pay higher taxes than those who don't.
Handcuffing administrators is a GOOD thing.
Moved to Hertford Co., NC after 15 years in Va Beach a year and a half ago, 3 miles south of VA line. My property tax is less than a third (I have more than twice the land now), my car tax is less than half (and that's after Gilmore's 70% reduction), my water bill is a fraction of what it was, no storm water tax, no crime (my old hood off Indian River Road turned into a violent, drug infested ghetto), and I can commute to work in VA with no traffic. And yes, I changed my Freeper flag with no problem.
A lot of people supported the 2004 tax increase because they thought it would fix the roads.
We've gotten nowhere with using general revenues on the roads. Too many people oppose using general revenue for the roads, and that's OK I guess.
If we raise car-related taxes to spend on roads, maybe we can get the roads off the table as a number-one problem.
If so, THEN we can argue to lower the taxes for general revenue, since there is a surplus. Right now, you can't argue lower taxes because people look at the roads and say "why not spend it on the roads", not understanding how the system works.
In addition, the proposal tries (and may succeed) to give areas a taxing authority of their own for money to keep locally. Virginia is a state where localities are not allowed to raise their own taxes unless the state approves it, which I think is backwards but a lot of fiscal conservatives have liked because they can thwart taxes at two levels.
But if a majority in a locality want to raise their own taxes, that's better than a state-wide increase. Not good, just less bad I guess. Northern Virginia pays a lot more in taxes than they get back in roads, and allowing their own taxing authority will allow them to tax themselves to build their own roads (realise that the "transportation crisis" in Virginia is a very regional problem).
The deal does free up surplus to use for roads as well, and provides a small steady funding from the general fund for transportation (half I think of all surpluses will got to the transportation fund under the plan).
My opinion is that, to some degree, transportation is a Virginia quality-of-life issue, and as such should at least partly be funded by general revenue, not dedictated revenue. In other words, EVERY virginian benefits from roads, even if they never drive, so every virginian should have some stake in maintaining and building the roads.
I'm a bit dissappointed that the bill requires the first millions of revenue to be spent on public transportation, but we do actually use public transportation in NoVa, so it's not just a boondogle.
There is a big difference between planned and actual construction. Not a single ounce of dirt has been moved yet, and the citizens of NOVA have been hearing the blow back from Richmond for over a decade about constructing these stations.
Day late and dollar short seems to come to mind here.
Sorry, I'm afraid you're wrong on this.
There was NEVER a budget crisis. Period. They lied. As soon as MWarner got his way with increasing taxes, lo and behold, there was a budget surplus exactly equal to the amount of tax increase MWarner railroaded through the GA.
However, I agree with you about the roads in NoVa. I lived there. As I've said many times, VDOT could pave over every single square inch of ground between Fredericksburg and the Potmac and it still wouldn't be enough for some people.
People have been moaning and groaning about the roads in NoVa since I've been old enough to drive and probably longer than that.
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