March 6, 2006
This begins the last scheduled week of the 2006 session. Now the focus is predominately on the budget. The best-case-scenario is that there will be a budget by the end of this week. The other extreme would be that the budget conferees stay and work toward a compromise and then call back the rest of the legislator's when something has been agreed upon.
The one thing I can tell you is that no one has all the answers. There is no solution that will make everyone happy. There must be some degree of give from every perspective in order to have a compromise that works for the varied interests of all Virginians.
As you well know, transportation is the one big issue.
There are several questions that I find myself asking as the budget process comes to an end. Should we take money from rural areas and send it to Northern Virginia for road construction? Should we create more debt that must be paid later as the House of Delegates has proposed? Or, should we follow the course of the Senate plan by generating a bulk of the funds from the individuals who use the Virginia highways but are not residents of the Commonwealth? Or, should we let the high growth areas of the state like Northern Virginia pay for the transportation they say they need?
The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy recently tried to determine which budget plan was best for the Commonwealth. They asked the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Boston to analyze the transportation plans of the Governor, the House, and the Senate. The Thomas Jefferson Institute has a board that consists of a wide range of individuals from members of the Reagan administration to folks that have served Virginia in a number of tasks. One member is Clarksville native Robert Woltz. They have judged the plans using what was called in the Reagan Presidency "supply side" economics - the theory that there are dynamic consequences caused by tax and spending policy.
According to that modeling; the House budget would create 8,139 new jobs generating $1.4 billion in real income; the Governor's budget would create 10,267 new jobs and generate $1.9 billion in real disposable income; and the Senate budget would create 16,203 new jobs and generate and additional $2.2 billion more in real disposable income.
In the narrative that came with the statistics, the Chairman wrote "I am surprised by the outcome...but what these do show is the impact of infrastructure spending." Additionally he pointed out that there would be other positive impacts - from less congestion for commuters to contractors being able to get from one job to the next more timely.
How does this relate to those in this region? Quiet simply, we are one Commonwealth. If the economy of Northern Virginia is doing well, it helps pay the taxes for our schools and other services that we can not afford to pay for without their tax dollars. If the economy of Northern Virginia stalls because of traffic concerns, we lose. If the ports of Tidewater can not handle the incoming and outgoing freight efficiently because of traffic, they will divert to other ports and we will lose.
As always, I encourage you to contact me if you would like to discuss transportation or any other issues during the General Assembly by telephone at 804.698.7515 or by email.