You wrote:

“BTW, for every $1 sent to Rmond, NOVA gets about 66 cents back.”.

Is there an “official” source for this?

Interesting idea (and name). It’s happened before. The people of West Virginia broke with the ruling class in Richmond over the Civil War. The state of Virginia became smaller (and more triangular).

Now, would your interest change if North Virginia also included present day Washington, DC? As freightening as it may be to many on this site, Barack Obama is leading John McCain right now (as far as I can tell). President Obama might think it’s time for the residents of DC to get full citizen’s rights. Maybe adding Northern Virginia (and Maryland’s Washington suburbs) makes for a more viable state.

Unfortunately, the number of people with their “hands out” continues to increase while the number of “givers” (producers) continues to decrease.

I wonder who provides when the “givers” don’t have any more to give?

It’s not all that far fetched that they might feel they are doing what their constituents want if they keep re-electing them.

I think the interesting aspects of this transportation funding debate are in the regional “push me - pull you” antics going on throughout Virginia. The three key regions are Northern Virginia, Tidewater and Elsewhere.

NoVA is already paying a lot for transportation. Beyond the standard gas tax, Northern Virginia also pays a 0.6 cents per gallon tank storage fee and a 2% incrimental sales tax on the sale of motor fuels. In addition, taxes are collected in a number of NoVA counties ostensibly for transportation (although these funds are rumored to be “redirected” for other things - particularly in Fairfax County). Finally, the General Assembly has side-stepped funding some NoVA roads by selling the lanes on I95 and I395 to private enterprises which will expand those roads and charge variable tolls (expected to cost $1 / mile at peak times). Meanwhile, most measures of road quality in Northern Virginia show that region to have rather poor conditions. (http://dashboard.virginiadot.org/Pages/Maintenance/Bridge.aspx).

Tidewater has some serious congestion issues - especially with regard to the roadways that support the ports. However, Tidewater is opposed to regional transportation authorities claiming that they are unelected and unaccountable. Meanwhile, the traffic gets worse as the people of Tidewater wait in hope that the General Assembly will reach consensus and fix the problem.

Elsewhere in Virginia things are OK. The major transportation tax - the gas tax - has not been raised for 21 years. Road quality is good. Road building has been consistent - look at the “Richmond Beltway” (295) - it’s as big as the Washington beltway for a city about 1/10 the size (my guess). Politicians from these areas answer the question of transportation funding by saying, “We aren’t paying more taxes to build NoVA’s roads”. All questions regarding the soures and uses of Virginia’s transportation funds are met with a shrug of the shoulders. In fact, the analysis I have seen indicates that more transportation money is taken from NoVA than spent on transportation in NoVA. So, a better quote would be, “We’re not changing the transportation tax because we already get more than we pay. We don’t want NoVA’s money spent on NoVA’s roads”.

Amidst all this - the Virginia Senate (Dems) passed a bill that would raise the statewide gas tax by 6 cents a gallon. The Republicans have oscillated between calling for a “performance audit” and proposing an extremely complex regional taxing and transportation organization. Essentially, the Democrats are in favor of new taxes that would make the entire taxation / subsidy situation more fair to NoVA while the Republicans favor a scheme which would make the already unfair system even worse for NoVA.

Let me finish this with a word on the trustworthiness of Virginia’s political class. The Dulles Toll Road was built under the agreement that the tolls would be lifted once the road was paid off. Years passed and the road has been paid off. Have the tolls been lifted? No, they’ve been raised. So any “lockbox” scheme endorsed by the General Assembly must be viewed with a sceptical eye. Whatever the GA passes, the GA can take away. Money collected for transportation in NoVA can be diverted elsewhere. Only an amendment to the Virginia constitution would tie the hands of the GA sufficiently to prevent foul play. Anybody who doubts this need only look at Mark Warner’s Education tax. Advertised as a way to improve education funding, it turned into a mechanism for localities outside NoVA to lower their local tax rates and “import” more money from NoVA. And this was no naieve mistake.

“The same thing had happened during the administration of Governor Gerald Baliles when many localities drastically reduced their local support for education as state aid increased. It was an action that led to creation of a “maintenance of effort” clause when Governor James Gilmore signed a K-12 education increase into law to ensure that localities did not use increased state aid to reduce their local support.

But neither Warner nor the General Assembly proposed such a clause in 2004. Nor did any member of the General Assembly propose such a clause on either the Senate or House floors.”.

Source: http://www.forwardfairfax.com/papers/withdrawals.htm

Now the same Governor (Warner) who intentionally ripped off Northern Virginia wants us to support him instead of his opponent (Gilmore) who took pains to protect Northern Virginia.

In Virginia, you can’t really bet on Republicans or Democrats as a party. You have to look at the individual candidates.

Pre-kindergarten for four year olds is coming….oh, and of course, state provided day care for those poor two and three year old children of Moms who must work if they’re to have that 42″ HDTV… sheeeeeeeeeesh — just like transportation improvements, these programs cost money…and where will that money come from?

It’s never-ending….:(