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Richmond Commuters Enjoying Virginia's Last Freeway |
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By: Steve Haner
The new Route 288, a 34-mile highway connecting Interstates 95 and 64 west of Richmond, might be Virginia's last freeway.
This is the way Secretary of Transportation Whitt Clement put it as the ribbon was cut on Route 288's last stretch: "In several important respects, the completion of all 32 miles of Route 288 marks the end of a chapter in Virginia's transportation system.
"Creating new corridors and constructing expensive new facilities with state dollars only, without tolls and without using federal dollars, is a luxury we no longer enjoy. Virginia law specifies the formulas by which transportation revenues are distributed to the nine construction districts across the state.
"This project is located within the Richmond construction district – which includes 14 counties and 8 cities. Paying for this road – as important as it is – will require all of the primary road money to which this district is entitled until the year 2013. Without more state revenues, sustained, year in and year out, there will be no more Route 288's, anywhere."
Note that final prediction – no new primary construction in the Richmond district until 2013, and no more non-federal projects on the scale of 288 anywhere in Virginia. If the Governor's plan to pay of some deficits on existing projects is approved, that situation improves only slightly.
Most of the powers that be in Virginia are making it clear that they are unalterably opposed to any transportation funding scheme that even hints of a tax increase. The posturing is coming from both parties, and both will try to take political advantage. The e-mails are already flying out of the server at the Republican Party of Virginia complaining that Lieutenant Governor Timothy Kaine has failed to swear a blood oath on a stack of Bibles that he will never, ever sign a gas tax bill. Get ready for a year of this classic "have you stopped beating your wife" tactic.
For his part, likely Republican nominee Attorney General Jerry Kilgore is taking the pledge. "I am committed to looking at innovative and forward-looking initiatives that free up capacity on our existing network of roads by recognizing that transportation is a service that should be treated like other goods and services -- allowing the private sector to meet the demands of consumers in an open and free marketplace," he told a recent Virginia Chamber of Commerce conference. "What I will not do is advance more of the outdated, ineffective efforts of the past, such as a gas tax increase."
What does a "no tax hike" transportation system look like? If there is going to be congestion relief in Northern Virginia, it will only be for people who can afford the proposed HOT lanes. If there is going to be added capacity on Interstate 81, it may come with truck-only tolls that will weaken our struggling manufacturing sector. The only way to widen suburban streets like Richmond's Hull Street or to revitalize Washington Metro is with local bonds paid off with local real estate taxes.
Then there is the idea working its way towards us from America's Left Coast, an electronic tracking device on your car to tally your mileage so you can be billed directly for your usage of the transportation system. The idea already has fans in the Virginia General Assembly, which is getting more Orwellian every year.
Now there is a new idea -- a way to make people pay more if they drive more, pay less if they drive less. But we have that already. That would be the motor fuels tax, which can be collected without giving Big Brother records of your movements and has the added benefit of rewarding conservation.
When you hear about new, innovative, outside-the-box proposals that will eliminate the need for any straight-up tax increase that is what they are usually boil down to – tolls, debt and old wine in a new skin. Free rides are as hard to find in the real world as free lunches.
There will be more toll roads, of course. The 288 project was a natural for tolls. It is an entirely new route across the James River and is already heavily traveled. The other limited access route available to western Chesterfield commuters, the Powhite Parkway, is a toll road. The absence of a toll on Route 288 dramatically subsidizes development in Richmond's outer suburbs.
But the mere hint of a toll on 288 years ago was crushed at the outset by the same conservative Republicans who now consider tolling our transportation silver bullet.
Chesterfield, Goochland, Henrico and Powhatan Counties are an expanding Republican mother lode in Virginia elections. No Republican with any political aspirations was going to ask those voters to pay a toll on their way to the new mall at Short Pump, the mountains or the weekend game in Charlottesville. So they got the last freeway built with state gas taxes in Virginia. What the rest of Virginia gets depends on the outcome of this discussion, once we get past all the posturing.
Steve Haner is Vice President for Public Policy of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, and a coordinator of the Virginians for Better Transportation campaign. This article first appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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