Is Speaker Howell A Republican?
By Greg L | 1 July 2008 | Virginia Politics | 8 Comments
Is Speaker Howell signaling something in his appointments to the Northern Virginia Regional Transportation Commission? It seems to me that the folks who are promoting the awful HB 6055 tax hike plan are getting a reward here. If Speaker Howell was interested in keeping our taxes low and ensuring that our government runs efficiently, he might consider appointing folks like Delegates Scott Lingamfelter, Bob Marshall or Jeff Frederick, who seem to understand what Republican principles are, to this commission.
Speaker Howell’s appointments to state commissions and boards (excerpt):
NORTHERN VIRGINIA TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (Code § 15.2-4832): Delegates *May and *Rust.
NORTHERN VIRGINIA TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION (Code § 15.2-4503.1): Delegates *Albo, *May, *Rust, and *Ebbin.
I’m not too impressed with the Speaker tonight. If he keeps this up, we’re going to have Democrats controlling both the House and Senate in 2009, because it’s getting really hard sometimes to discern much difference between Speaker Howell and Dick Saslaw.
UPDATE: Other interesting appointments on this list include Delegate Kristen Amundson (of Fairfax County) to the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission, Mr. Randall West (of Washington, D.C.) to the (Virginia) Veterans Services Foundation Board of Trustees, and Delegate Marsden (of Fairfax County) to the Virginia-North Carolina Interstate Toll Road Compact Commission. Did the Coal and Energy Commission really require representation by an eco-radical from the House Homosexual Caucus?
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Republicans can advocate for a tax increase without having their Party affiliation questioned.
Citizens should be wary of those who always claim that they will never vote for tax increases. With infrastructure costs rising, government must get the revenue from somewhere. We either raise the money in an honest and open way, such as with a gas consumption tax increase, or you can have more cops hiding in bushes with radar guns preying on you in an effort to raise revenue without a “tax increase.”
The point upon which Speaker Howell needs to receive intense criticism is his continued support of Regional Taxes. All Virginians benefit from our road system. Goods that come via the Port of Hampton Roads, and via Northern Virginia are transported to every part of the Commonwealth. Any infrastructure tax burden should be shared by all citizens and such tax burdens when shared by so many will be the lightest on each of us.
Greg-
While Speaker Howell and I certainly disagree on many issues, particularly when it comes to transportation, I feel like I need to defend these appointments a little.
When it comes to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC), each appointee must represent part of Fairfax County, Arlington County or the cities of Alexandria, Falls Church or Fairfax. Therefore Delegates Marshall, Lingamfelter and Frederick (whom you suggested) would not be eligible for these seats. Of the four seats he does get to fill, he put Republicans into three of them (Rust, May and Albo). There is only one other Republican he could have appointed to the fourth seat and my understanding is that Tim Hugo was not interested in the appointment (although I have not verified that directly with Delgate Hugo.)
The counterpart to NVTC for the southern portion of Northern Virginia is the Potomac-Rappahnnock Transportation Commission (PRTC) to which the Speaker gets to make two appointments: he re-appointed Scott Lingamfelter and Jackson Miller to those PRTC seats. I serve on that Commission (along with five other PWC Board members) and I can tell you that Scott and Jackson are both the right men for the job. Because he represents Manassas, Manassas Park and the county, Jackson is a particularly sound and effective advocate for the VRE; and Scott’s strong ties to Faquier County are especially helpful as we negotiate with that county for potential membership in VRE.
For what its worth, I thought that this would be a help in painting the whole picture.
Thanks-
Marty
Marty,
But that doesn’t explain the NVTA appointments.
Ty,
“Republicans can advocate for a tax increase without having their Party affiliation questioned.”
Not if we can help it!
Tax increases…only when warranted. McDonnell is on to something, calling for an extensive audit of VDOT. But that should only be the beginning. Government is far too wasteful and must be better managed before wringing pennies from our pockets. Check spending first. And, if transportation is such a priority, put your General Fund money where your mouth is by prioritizing it in the budget, not making it a “crisis” afterthought.
As for the appointments, they are rather interesting. I had no problem, however, with the appointments made from Hampton Roads. Perhaps that’s because I don’t have a problem with most of the delegates from Hampton Roads.
BTW, Marty, that resolution of yours is FANTASTIC.
The VDOT audit is just a delaying tactic to allow McDonnell to fail to take a position on transportation. The vDOT audit comes up constantly, the audit has been done numerous times over the years with little waste being observed. The Rs are in a bind in both Hampton Roads and NOVA, the transportation needs are huge but the Rs are bound by the extremists not to spend a dime. So, while they parade down to Rmond next week, nothing will be done and Albo, Hugo and Rust can say bye bye to their seats in 2009.
JTB’s comment has a wisdom rare in these parts. Republican and conservative principles are about fiscal discipline. They have very little to do with “no new taxes.” The NNT crowd is just using the phrase to avoid having to make their little heads hurt about running a big government. There are some taxes that stink on all kinds of levels (e.g., local taxes on the market value of residential properties) and some that make immense sense (transportation dedicated taxes based on use patterns). One has to be willing to enact new taxes to sweep away burdensome and non-sensical ones.
But, if we’re trying to find the answer to the question: “Is Speaker Howell a Republican?” the answer is NO. The reason for the answer is that there are no more than 3 or 4 Republicans in public office in Virginia as best I can tell (or at least there won’t be after Davis and Warner leave). The odds that Howell is one of them are very slim.
Don’t know if you saw the Metro section of this mornings WaPo, seems 90 of our senators and delegates took illegal campaign contributions from a foreign company, Transurban, they are going to screw up the I95/395 slug system in Eastern Prince William by instlling HOT lanes. 1/2 the Transportation Committee took $, no wonder Nichols bill to ban HOT failed miserably in that Committee. The big benefactors of the illegal contributions on the Trans. Committee: Tom Rust-$2,000 (Fairfax/Loudoun), Tim Hugo-$1,500 (Fairfax), Committee Chair Joe May-$1,000 (Loudoun).
Prince William Delegates accepting illegal contributions: Frederick, Lingamfelter.
Looks like the Gov took some too!