May 11, 2008Discuss Sunday's editorialsA map to bypass the gridlock Virginia lawmakers will get another shot June 23 to find a way to fund transportation projects. Unless a majority of House delegates are willing to stand up to Speaker Bill Howell, this session will do nothing more than color them three-time losers. Rethinking ethanol The same day U.S. senators were holding hearings about whether the government had made a mistake in promoting the use of grain-based ethanol for fuel, a Southwest Virginia company announced it would spend $300 million building four new ethanol plants. The plants would use barley rather than corn as a fuel source, but the repercussions are similar. NRV Current editorial Developers ask governments to rezone land all the time, so the Reese Family Limited Partnership's request that Montgomery County rezone 228 acres is typical. The board of supervisors must decide whether putting more houses in that rural part of the county makes sense. Supervisors should not rush to a decision given serious questions raised about whether there's enough water in the ground to support the development. |
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Comments
[May 11, 2008 10:46 AM]
Ed S."should reach out to rural and Southwest Virginia to court the necessary votes"
Many of the northern VA pols speak down to southwest VA (that includes you, Roanoke). They whine, whine, whine about how northern VA subsidized education and other programs of SWVA, then turn around and complain about SWVA not helping fund NoVAs pet projects. Not to mention the tired old jokes of secession.
Just saying I'm not sure southwest VA would be so eager to help NoVA in solving it's mostly self-inflicted traffic woes.
[May 11, 2008 12:17 PM]
C RamseyI spent the better part of the last month traveling in the Tidewater region. To say the roads in that region are in bad shape is a gross understatement. The roads there are in shambles, and not just secondary roads and streets. I'm talking about highways and Interstates.
It is clear that these regions cannot maintain the roads as needed at the current funding level.
Comparatively speaking, the roads in Central and Southwest Virginia seem to be in pretty good shape. Apparently these regions are able to adequately, not perfectly mind you, but adequately maintain roads at the current level of funding. This is no doubt due to the facts that there are fewer roads, overpasses, etc. and a far smaller population in these regions using the roads.
Given the past several years with little or no progress, it seems unlikely that the state will be able to increase funding for transportation without significant tax increases to increase revenue. But with most people already feeling the pinch of increased gas, food and virtually every other necessity, raising taxes doesn't really seem like a good answer either.
NOVA and Tidewater have both developed proposals to fund transportation locally. Given that the massive infrastructure in these regions cannot be maintained at the current levels of state funding, but other areas seem to be able to maintain their regions adequately at present levels, these seems like a reasonable alternative.
The Roanoke Times has decried these proposals saying other regions would suffer if the two major population centers began to fund their own transportation needs. Yet they have offered no explanation of why this would be true. I am not aware how either of these local propodals would decrease the amount of state funds available for transportation.
In arguing to increase the gas tax, the Times says the people who use the roads should pay for them. But I ask you, isn't that exactly what these local proposals accomplish? The population using the roads on a daily basis would provide the additional funding needed to maintain the roads of the population centers.
As usual, I disagree with the Times, but these proposals just don't seem that unreasonable.