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Lt. Gov. Kaine meets with Virginians for Better Transportation |
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Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine, the Democratic Party candidate for governor, said that governors often do not get to choose the issue that dominates their single four-year term in office – the issue chooses them. He said he believes “the next governor’s issue is transportation.”
Kaine met with a group from Virginians for Better Transportation (VBT) Friday, Aug. 5. He also provided written answers to a VBT questionnaire, which follow this summary. A similar report on Independent candidate Russ Potts has already been published on the www.itstimevirginia.org Web site. The meeting with Republican nominee Jerry Kilgore is still being scheduled.
Kaine also served as mayor and a member of city council for the City of Richmond, and said his local government experience with transportation sets him apart from the other candidates. The city manages its own road program, and has sole or shared responsibility for a bus system, a toll-road authority, an international airport and a seaport on the James River.
During his term he worked on the successful effort to bring limited Amtrak service back to the downtown station. He said he as the most experience “dealing with transportation problems and solving them.”
He organized his thoughts on transportation into four priorities:
First, he said there is a need to convey a sense of urgency about the issue to the general public. If elected he said he would use the two months between the election and his first General Assembly session “to try to really rev people up” about the need to act.
Second, in the area of finances and funding, he said there is need to restore the voters’ trust that money dedicated to transportation will be spent on transportation, with no diversions. He said he was shocked to discover that transportation “trust fund” dollars could be spent elsewhere, and he would work to stop that practice. As governor, of course, he could stop it for four years but said “I’m looking for a solution that goes beyond my term.”
He repeated his pledge to veto any additional taxes for transportation unless there is a guarantee that the money would be spent on transportation. Since the failed 2002 referendum questions he has been an advocate of a constitutional amendment as a way to protect the transportation funds. There may be another way to assure him and regain the trust of the people – but somehow the General Assembly must “lock up the trust fund.”
He has not advocated any higher taxes or fees, nor has he taken anything off the table. But he said he would not commit General Funds to transportation (he makes an exception for surplus funds) and added: “I’m not going to yoke every revenue source to a referendum.”
His third element involves improved “harmonization” between land-use planning and transportation planning, which he said could involve granting localities and regions more responsibility. He said a commitment to this approach, which he believes will improve the effectiveness of future transportation investments, will be an important consideration in choosing a commissioner for VDOT.
Finally, he is committed to a multi-modal approach, again convinced that simply building more roads will not solve the underlying mobility problems. As an example, he spoke of the plans to improve the rail corridors through Virginia so that trains leaving the ports could carry double-stacked containers all the way into American’s heartland, reducing truck traffic on the east-west highway corridors.
To contact the Kaine campaign or learn more about his positions, visit his Web site at www.kaine2005.org.
To see Lt. Gov. Kaine's responses to the VBT questionnaire click here.
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