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general tuna, traditionally reserved to pay tor core services such as public schools, higher education, health and public safety. While we understand the importance of addressing our transportation needs, it shouldn't be done on the backs of our schools and students.
We re also not thrilled with the idea of setting up tolls along the North Carolina border on 1-85 and 1-95. These tolls would be aimed more at people's wallets than at reducing congestion. The fact that they'd only affect inbound drivers makes us even more skeptical. It's too transparent.
There are better options, and McDonnell has a few of those, as well. Privatizing Virginia’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and dedicating all related funds to transportation, which McDonnell included in his 19-page plan, is one of them. McDonnell says it could pump $500 million into the state’s road maintenance fund. That’s probably a tad optimistic, but generating half that figure would be a victory'.
McDonnell also proposes to take a portion of the sales-tax revenue collected in Northern Virginia and bank it in a regional transportation account. While variations of this theme have failed to gain traction over the last decade, it’s a subject worth revisiting.
Another interesting suggestion involves eliminating waste and inefficiencies at VDOT through an intensive audit. It's long overdue, and could save the state a healthy chunk of change if executed properly. McDonnell’s idea of creating a bipartisan transportation task force led by former governors and congressmen to evaluate the state’s transportation system is also intriguing.
Given all that, we are a bit surprised by the backlash to McDonnell’s platform. Is it perfect? No, not by a long shot But it’s a start, and appears to be a genuine effort to address Virginia’s most pressing problem.
It also happens to be more than we’ve seen from his opponent. Democrat R. Creigh Deeds. He’s stated that hell come up with a solution to transportation woes ip his first year in office but has yet to provide us with specifics, especially a funding plan.
To this point. Deeds has spent most of his time telling us why McDonnell’s plan won’t work. We’d be a lot more impressed if Deeds showed us an option that does.
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