Governor Bob McDonnell previewed components of his transportation agenda for the 2011 General Assembly session today. Gov. McDonnell's overall transportation vision focuses on maximizing all available resources and programs to get projects initiated during one of the most favorable road building periods in Virginia history. Gov. McDonnell's proposals, when fully implemented, would pump $4 billion into road, transit and rail projects in the Commonwealth over the next three years, dramatically speeding up congestion-reducing efforts and increasing job-creation and economic development efforts statewide.
Democratic leaders such as DPV Chairman Brian Moran and Democratic House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong have been quick to criticize this plan. However, they have failed to propose any ideas whatsoever on transportation.
Even more laughable is that up to $1.8 billion of this funding will be derived from accelerating the issuance of transportation bonds approved by Moran and Armstrong in 2007! All that McDonnell is doing is speeding it up to take advantage historically good deals for road building, and to put our citizens back to work. Doing this will save the state significant money in the years ahead by securing good deals today. As Moran said back in 2007…
“Overall, it [the bill and bond package] represents significant progress. The sum of plan is greater than the parts”
So it appears neither Moran nor Armstrong want to issue bonds to build roads that they voted for and applauded just three short years ago. All that’s changed is the governor is now Republican, oh, and we can get road building deals sealed for cheaper than any other time in modern history and get Virginians back to work in a very difficult economy.
That’s just the definition of partisan politics. We eagerly await their input on transportation, and we remind them that saying no is not an idea; delaying progress is not a solution.
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