Time to raise your taxes that is.
Another litany of complaints begging for more funding for Virginia transportation. Nevermind that we have an additional $10 billion in revenue from the previous biennium. Nevermind the Virginia General Assembly continues to raid the Transportation Trust Fund. Nevermind state expenditures are far outpacing income growth in the Commonwealth. Nevermind the fact that Virginia taxpayers overwhelmingly rejected transportation bonds in 2003.
It’s time to raise taxes, they cry. Now we might not read this on this website, but we all know where this line of reasoning leads. The radio ads are up, and the cheerleading from a vocal minority with plenty of cash to raise taxes is on the march.
And while this group in particular is long on complaints, they are preciously short on solutions. Why should the state be making the transportation decisions when it is localities who determine land use? Transportation initiatives should work from the bottom up, not the top down. Why throw more money at a transpotation process that needs restructuring, not billion dollar band-aids?
Brace yourself folks, and be sure to ask legislators whether they too will be joining the cacaphony of special interests supporting higher taxes in ’06.