After reading Creigh Deeds Transportation Plan, it would appear that Democrats are staying with the “business as usual” plan.? Even in these tough economic times, he appears to still want more taxes:
Let me be clear regarding taxes. I will sign a bill that is the product of bipartisan compromise that provides a comprehensive transportation solution. As a legislator, I have voted for a number of mechanisms to fund transportation, including a gas tax. And I’ll sign a bipartisan bill with a dedicated funding mechanism for transportation — even if it includes new taxes.
We can’t solve this problem without new revenue. My opponent is playing political shell games, being dishonest about his revenue projections. And his idea to take funds from education, health care and public safety to pay for transportation is dead on arrival.
Since governments aren’t in the business of making money (except by printing more of it), the only way to get new revenue is more taxes.? I’m kind of partial to McDonnell’s idea, in Deeds’ own words:
Bob McDonnell has pledged not to sign a transportation bill with new revenue. His approach is to pay for transportation with money from the general fund. As The Post’s Frederick Kunkle has reported, “general funds are raised from a variety of sources, such as individual and corporate income taxes. These funds can be spent . . . at the discretion of the General Assembly and the governor. The majority of the money in the general fund goes to education (45.9 percent), with the rest to health and human resources (24.2 percent) and public safety (11.1 percent).”
I’m all for taking money from one fund that doesn’t need it (or, IMO, shouldn’t have it to begin with) and putting it toward one of the more useful things that government provides – roads.? I personally don’t think we need to be pushing 45% of the general fund to education, there have been many studies finding that more money does not give better results.? This is especially true in the monopoly of public schools that the government runs, there being no incentive for them to do better.? I also don’t see the need for funding the other two big items listed there, Health & Human resources or public safety.
Tags: Deeds, Governor, McDonnell, Transportation