Richard L. Beadles, director of the Virginia Rail Policy Institute, gave a compelling lecture at the October 8, 2008 meeting of the Senior Statement of Virginia. His presentation was entitled “Preparing to Celebrate 200 Years of Rail In Virginia”. SSV President Fred Terry, a distinguished railroader in his own right, moderated the program.
Attorney General Bob McDonnell is calling for extensive VDOT reforms before raising any taxes commonwealth-wide. J.R. Hoeft had the opportunity to catch-up with him at his Richmond office to discuss his ideas on this special session and possible outcomes.
VPOD: Attorney General McDonnell on transportation [13:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (383)To listen to any of the previous podcasts, click here.
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State Sen. John Miller (D-1) has been a strong proponent of several transportation projects in Hampton Roads since winning election last November. He joins J.R. today to discuss transportation, energy, and possible outcomes from next week’s special session.
One noteworthy point made during the discussion was Miller’s willingness to consider off-shore drilling.
After listening to this podcast, be sure to also listen to the interview from earlier this week with Sen. Frank Wagner.
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While Democrats continue to offer very little in the way of solutions to our energy concerns, unless you count RAISING the price of oil (such as removing subsidies for energy companies, increasing the gas tax, etc.), some responsible legislators, including Virginia’s own State Sen. Frank Wagner, are trying to move the debate in a direction that helps America preserve its energy security. (more…)
On the June 12th edition of WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” Coy Barefoot talks with Virginia Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling (R) about the upcoming special session on transportation. Bolling summed up the prospects for the special session.
“There’s just no consensus… my fear is we’re going to go there on the 23rd, it’s going to be very short, its going to be very non-productive,” Bolling said., “I just don’t see a consensus building right now, and again it’s always possible that it could happen here in the next few days, but right now it seems highly unlikely.”
Governor Tim Kaine (D) has presented a plan that would increase fees for vehicle registration and increase taxes on car purchases, as well as levy a one cent sales tax increase on residents in Northern Virginia.
Bolling made it clear that he is opposed to such tax increases, stating his view that “there’s never really a good time to raise taxes, but frankly this is a horrible time to raise taxes because of the state of the economy.”
He also painted the Democrats in the General Assembly as out of touch with Virginia voters, arguing that there’s agreement between Republican lawmakers and voters.
“The problem in Richmond is not a lack of money, the problem in Richmond is a lack of fiscal discipline. We’ve got enough money through existing revenue sources to solve our transportation problems if we just use that money for transportation, as opposed to spending it on all of these new and expanded government programs, and the people of Virginia are a step ahead of the members of the General Assembly.”
Bolling outlined his proposals for solving the transportation problem without raising taxes. He said that reserving just 1% of the existing state sales tax for the transportation trust fund would result in approximately $950 million a year for transportation. As an alternative, he mentioned the possibility of requiring 10% of future revenue growth to go towards transportation expenses; he said that if the state had adopted this policy 10 years ago, it would have generated $800 million over the past decade. Bolling also laid out his plan for budget surpluses, arguing that “those budget surpluses are by definition one-time money, I think they should be used to fund one-time things like capital projects, building roads and bridges.”
Brian Moran of Alexandria is the chairman of the Democratic Caucus in the House of Delegates. He joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now to discuss what Governor Kaine may do with the transportation bill currently before him. He has until March 26th to amend the legislation, which would borrow up to $2.5 billion to pay for new roads.
“He’s got the opportunity to fix the bill,” says Moran. Moran explains why he thinks money for roads should not come from the general fund.
Yesterday I sat down with James Atticus Bowden to discuss transportation. (What else?) While I’m a transportation wonk-wanna-be, Jim is the real deal, blogging with the experts at Bacon’s Rebellion nonetheless. Despite being the “Republican Conservative”, elected to leadership positions on both his local and district Republican committees and on the RPV central steering committee, Jim is not bashful about how he feels about the current transportation bill (HB3202) that currently sits on Governor Kaine’s desk. He says it both bad policy and bad politics. It’s a great discussion we have, albeit a little long - a little over an hour, and believe it or not we agree on a number of things! Will wonders ever cease!
Click here to listen.
Brian Kirwin and Jim Hoeft of BearingDrift.com discuss winners, losers, numbers, and the process forward for the GOP’s freshly-paved transportation proposal.
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What’s your opinion?
What’s your opinion?
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Pierce Homer is the Secretary of Transportation for the Commonwealth of Virginia. He joined Coy Barefoot on the October 5th edition of WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now to discuss the state of Virginia transportation. Homer says the collapse of the special session to deal with long-term funding for transportation was a set-back.
“It’s certainly a disappointment for anyone who cares about transportation or is affected by it,” says Homer. Homer outlines what he says some of the needs are for the state’s roads and highways.
Tune in to find out what the Secretary has to say.