The Honorable Gerald L. Baliles' Speech to the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance

McLean, Virginia
November 28, 2006

Thank you for the invitation to be a part of your conference on transportation. Your focus on congestion in Northern Virginia is appropriate. It's been part of Northern Virginia's lifestyle for far too long, and it is evidence of a transportation system that is inefficient, unresponsive and underfunded.

I have always thought that the purpose of a transportation system is to move people and products quickly and efficiently. If a society cannot move it people and products, it cannot compete. If it cannot compete, it cannot sustain the vitality of its economy, nor the quality of life. It's that fundamental.

As we all know, in recent years, our transportation systems, particularly in fast-growing suburban and urban regions of Virginia, have been under severe stress. Too many roads have become gridlocked; too many bridges are deteriorating; too many lost hours are spent tied up in traffic.

Even painting with broad strokes, the canvas is compelling. The needs are overwhelming, and the costs are enormous.

So are the consequences of delay and denial.

A quick look across Virginia shows a compelling story.

Northern Virginia, already first or second in the nation in carpooling, and first or second in the country in mass transit, and a national leaders in transportation technology, is choking on congestion – the third most congested area in the nation, the experts say, with the second longest commute time.

During the next 25 years, it is projected that Northern Virginia will add 350,000 households a 43% increase. Jobs will increase 53%, while it is estimated that the population will increase 42%.

In Northern Virginia, fixing the problem is costly. Ignoring the problem is devastating.

In Hampton Roads there are equally frustrating choke-points of congestion, and the problems are complicated by the geography of water. The need for bridges and tunnels drives up the costs enormously, whether one is talking about a new midtown tunnel, the widening of Interstate 64, or one of the other projects that has been discussed for decades, and recently discarded for lack of funds.

Not all of the transportation problems exist in Northern Virginia or Hampton Roads, however.

Interstate 81 in the Valley of Virginia is one of the most dangerous and crowded roads in the country and requires attention and action. There are other roads, such as Route 58 and the Coalfields Expressway throughout the southern and southwestern rural areas of the state, that are needed.

While the Richmond region and central Virginia are not generally viewed as choking on congestion, and their needs are not as extensive as those elsewhere, recent data demonstrate that vehicle miles traveled in the Richmond metropolitan region are now greater per capita than in any other region of the Commonwealth.

The point is this: No region is being left untouched by the strains and stresses of the state's transportation network. These problems did not occur overnight, and they won't be resolved without money – funds that are identified and allocated for years to come.

In my judgment, the problems may get worse. Here's why.

First, Virginia's population continues to increase. We are one of the fastest growing states in the country – more than 30% in the past two decades.

Second, people come here in cars – lots of them. According to the Division of Motor Vehicles, there are more than 7.2 million motor vehicles registered to Virginians in 2003, a 61% increase from the number two decades ago. Of course, that number does not reflect the millions of other vehicles, cars and trucks traveling through Virginia each year.

Unsurprisingly, vehicle travel in Virginia has increased enormously during the past 20 years – up by 74% for more than 178 million vehicle miles of daily travel. Estimates are that travel on Virginia's roads will increase exponentially, during the next dozen years or so.

So without question, population pressures and increased vehicle miles traveled have created major traffic challenges throughout much of Virginia, especially in this region.

But that's not half the problem.

Our roads are not in good shape, and they are getting worse.

Approximately 27% of Virginia's major roads have been rated either "poor" or in "mediocre condition," and in need of resurfacing or reconstruction.

Approximately 26% of Virginia's bridges – 20 feet or longer – were deemed recently to be structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

Taken altogether, these population pressures, vehicle miles traveled, and deterioration of the infrastructure, have created traffic challenges in Virginia that have cost an estimated $1.5 billion a year in delays and wasted fuel.

They have created vehicle repair costs to Virginia's motorists of more than a billion dollars annually, and, needless to say, they have added to the safety concern about Virginia's roads and highways.

If all this is troubling, consider this: We don't have the money to fix the problems.

As you may know, Virginia's road money gets distributed across the state according to a formula – so much by region, so much for interstates, primary, secondary, urban and unpaved roads.

By law, maintenance gets priority over construction money. As roads age and deteriorate over time, and under the pressure of greater increases in traffic, more and more money goes for maintenance.

We have reached the point where more money is being spent on maintenance than on construction, and in just a few short years, there will be no state money for new construction activities.

So we have a major infrastructure problem staring us in the face, and the necessary long-term investments that are required for the future are not being made. Indeed, during the past two decades, the purchasing power of Virginia's transportation dollar has declined by 44% due to inflation.

During the last decade or so, governors and legislators have been unable to reach agreement on finding any significant and sustained new sources of revenue for financing Virginia's infrastructure needs. There are suggestions here and there, but not a single one that produces the kind of revenue that Virginia needs now and for the next decade or longer.

Take a closer look at the scope of the problem.

The General Assembly's own studies show that Virginia's identified unmet needs now total 108 billion dollars during the next dozen years or so.

The state's current transportation budget is 3.8 billion dollars, and after paying down debt and dealing with maintenance and other costs, there is less than a billion dollars for new construction.

Indeed, the state's current backlog of maintenance needs is approximately 3 billion dollars. That is a revealing fact about Virginia's lack of commitment to protecting the investments and infrastructure already made.

You can see the nature of the difficulty.

In the meantime, there is no statewide plan for addressing these overwhelming needs.

We are not being realistic about the scope of the transportation challenges in the urban areas of the Commonwealth.

We are not being realistic about the impact of congestion and gridlock on the lives of our citizens, the bottom lines of our businesses, or the vibrancy of our economy.

We are not being realistic about the transportation needs of rural Virginia.

And we are not being realistic about financing, planning and delivering transportation solutions any time soon.

We talk vaguely about public-private partnerships; we suggest the use of one-time surplus funds; we talk about raiding the General Fund, streamlining VDOT, and eliminating waste, fraud and abuse to generate all the funds needed for transportation forever and a day.

These are not solutions, and we know it.

Without money, no roads will be built, no bridges repaired.

Without money, public transportation will deteriorate and decline.

Without money, plans for transportation improvements will remain on the drawing boards, and Virginia's future will be sorely compromised.

Just as our ancestors once faced geographic barriers in transportation, we face barriers of our own making – the inadequacy of public investments.

At stake now, as we have heard this afternoon, is not just our economic well-being, it is our social well-being as well.

The picture is not a pretty one, not for the Commonwealth, and not for Northern Virginia.

Here is the bottom line: Transportation infrastructure and maintenance have to be paid for. The only thing you get for free is congestion.

In the end, congestion – like cholesterol – kills, literally, in terms of reduced safety, and metaphorically in terms of the economy.

So our transportation network, which is one of the fundamental underpinnings of our economy, is not meeting public needs, because we have failed to reinvest regularly.

* * *

Transportation is a state responsibility, and the Commonwealth needs to acknowledge and accept that duty by finding the funds required to address state, regional and local transportation needs.

Virginia operates the nation's third largest state highway network, in large part on the nation's ninth lowest gas tax. The purchasing power of Virginia's transportation dollar, as I mentioned a moment ago, has declined 44% in the last 20 years, while demands on the network have increased dramatically.

VDOT recently announced that gas and motor vehicle sales tax receipts – which account for about 50% of Virginia's highway construction program, are running below projections during the first four months of this year.

Within the next three years, virtually all available state construction dollars will be consumed by maintenance. This means that soon there will be no state money available for construction activities.

Without available state funds for construction, Virginia will lack funds to match federal dollars, which currently fund 70% of our total construction program. We are close to the point where a statewide moratorium may have to be imposed on all new construction.

Or, to put it another way: no new money, no new construction.

To think that Virginia would allow Virginia's transportation program to "crash and burn" in this manner is unfathomable.

To paraphrase Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his treatise, The Social Contract, "as soon as the public good ceases to be the main interest of the citizens and those they elect, as soon as they prefer to save their political offices, rather than use them to meet public needs, the state is heading for disaster."

And that is precisely what has been happening to transportation in Virginia for too long.

Too many elected officials have been encouraging the public to believe that transportation is basically free, that there is plenty of money, that people don't have to pay more, or that the private sector will provide.

The result is a transportation program that is breaking down – one that is being held hostage by those who place a higher premium on ideological purity than finding solutions to Virginia's present needs and its future vitality.

In my judgment, that is unacceptable, and certainly an undesirable legacy for our children.

So where do we go from here?

It has quickly become conventional wisdom that nothing can happen in the 2007 session of the General Assembly because all members are up for reelection. Indeed, there have been suggestions even to shorten the session. The lack of any sense of urgency this year on the part of so many legislators is alarming, to say the least.

A major shipping terminal is under way in Hampton Roads that will double capacity. A million new truckloads a year will be added to the streets of Hampton Roads. Virginia's future won't wait.

Dulles Airport is adding two new runways, one of which is under construction. Virginia's future won't wait.

I-81 becomes more unsafe, and more people are being killed. Virginia's future won't wait.

Virginia is changing all around us, and its future can be bright, but this potential is not going to wait for transportation.

If shippers can't get containers in and out of Hampton Roads in a timely manner, they will go to Baltimore or to Charleston. If business travelers and shippers can't get to Dulles Airport, they will find an alternative.

If technology companies in Northern Virginia can't get employees willing to endure hours of traffic congestion, they will go elsewhere.

States and regions that succeed in the future will be those that have transportation networks that work.

Today, neither the Commonwealth of Virginia nor Northern Virginia meets that criterion.

The resolution endorsed by the Northern Virginia Business Community, stating that the funding issue has been well studied, and that further delay is unacceptable, is correct in its assessment.

In many respects, 2006 was the best opportunity in years to produce meaningful results for transportation funding.

It didn't happen, and the fact that it didn't happen means that we need to redouble our efforts, not walk away from the problem.

To consider a strategy of waiting until 2010, after the next round of legislative and gubernatorial elections, is an abdication of responsibility.

Virginia's future won't wait that long.

We need to resume the effort in 2007, and what isn't completed then must be accomplished in 2008.

My suggestion is that 2007 be seized as an opportunity to build a framework within which a broad coalition of interests can achieve consensus upon the elements of a comprehensive transportation package.

Such a framework should include agreement on the magnitude of the problem we are trying to finance, and the individual financial components necessary to meet that need.

Last year's suggestion of a goal of one billion dollars a year, minimum, for statewide needs is a good place to start, supplemented by regional packages of 400 million dollars per year for Northern Virginia, and 200 million dollars per year for Hampton Roads.

Statewide needs would include road construction and maintenance, public transit, and debt repayment.

Regional packages would be on top of state funding and would also include, for Northern Virginia, a transit component for matching federal funds for Metro.

I recognize that members of the Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads delegations advanced regional proposals in 2006. I encourage you to seek supplemental regional funding packages again in 2007.

In developing the statewide package, I recommend including components for Routes 58, 29 and 460 improvements, among others, in order to attract more votes from other parts of the Commonwealth.

Another part of the statewide package that would encourage "broader buy-in," would be a land conservation and acquisition component that would set aside funds for the purchase and preservation of open spaces, as well as the acquisition of land for key future transportation corridors in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, and other parts of the Commonwealth, especially since existing corridors clearly are not sufficient to meet current or long-term needs.

A more comprehensive approach must also recognize the importance of land-use and transportation coordination in a way that clearly keeps the pressure on state, and perhaps regional and local, entities to provide the funding necessary to construct the transportation infrastructure that good land-use practices require, something that is not being done now.

As a general principle, I believe that all – or most – new funds collected should be targeted for new construction, as was done in 1986. Whether new taxes and fees should be targeted or broad-based in nature, the major sources are well known. It's time to achieve consensus on the most acceptable combination in order to develop a framework for agreement.

Tolls also have potential. I have suggested in the past a network of 38 interstate tolling sites across the Commonwealth that, at 85 cents at each new high tech "no stop and go" toll site, could generate more than one billion dollars a year, much of which could come from travelers passing through the Commonwealth. I recommend that the General Assembly explore the possibility of securing federal approval for establishing such a network. Given the degree of uncertainty about securing the necessary federal approval, I believe this component should be viewed at the moment as a supplement to, not as the backbone of, a comprehensive statewide package.

Again, the objective for the 2007 session should be to create a framework on the parameters of a statewide agreement with regional funding supplements. What is not achieved in 2007 must be at the top of the Commonwealth's priority list in the 2008 General Assembly session.

I want to thank the participants and the audience for being here today. Your comments and suggestions will be welcomed and appreciated, especially by members of the General Assembly, as they seek to form the basis for developing a strategy that ensures that this Commonwealth, including this very critical region, keeps pace with the mounting transportation demands.

I hope we recognize the dimensions of our dilemma in January, and that there will be a better sense of urgency about this issue in the General Assembly. I believe we must build a better understanding of the problem.

We must build a consensus for action, regardless of the election calendar.

We all have to work at it -- people of good will of both political parties from across the regions of the Commonwealth.

We must also resist the Siren's song – the Lorelei – of Virginia politics, that we can just get along with an incremental fix here or a commission there, or that somehow these things will just take care of themselves on someone else's watch.

The problems discussed here today cannot be ignored. We must have a sustained commitment to financing transportation improvements, an effort that is commensurate with our hopes for the future.

The old saying that "actions speak louder than words" is appropriate to the occasion that brings us here today. Let's hope that we see some action "sooner, rather than later." The Commonwealth's future depends upon it.

Thanks very much.

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