EDITORIAL: Bipartisan fiasco in Richmond

After a two-week recess, the Virginia General Assembly returns today to resume a special session on transportation called by Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine. The session has all the makings of a political debacle that will move the state farther away from a viable long-term solution to its transportation woes. At times, it seems as if the governor, Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, Fairfax Democrat, and House Republicans led by Speaker Bill Howell are competing to see who can take “credit” for pushing through the worst possible package of tax increases on the people of the commonwealth. Northern Virginia’s transportation problem remains what it has been for a generation: a seriously flawed state transportation funding formula that funnels transportation dollars to sparsely populated rural areas while shortchanging regions of the state that have the most pressing needs. The Prince William County Board of Supervisors last year) threatened to defeat legislators who oppose a “long-term transportation solution” to her liking.

And for now, the harangues seem to be succeeding. Fairfax that would provide new road funding through a series of increases in taxes and fees.

This is a terrible idea - a point being made by more sober-minded Republicans. State party Gov. Mark Warner’s $1.4 billion tax increase in 2004 (only to learn several weeks later that the deficit Mr. Warner warned about was fiction, and that Virginia had a budget surplus.) Mr. Howell would do well to heed the warnings from Mr. Frederick and Mr. Cuccinelli.