Spank That Donkey

Vivian Page, who is beyond a doubt one of the most respected Left Leaning Bloggers in Virginia has quite the proposal on the table.  Take it away Vivian:

Last time I looked, former governor Jim Gilmore’s “no car tax” plan was costing the Commonwealth $950 million. By killing this plan, either outright or over a period of a few years, that money could be used to fund transportation. Yes, this amounts to a tax increase, but only on people who own cars. Think of it as a user fee

 Now, Vivian favors Governor Mark Warner for the US Senate Seat, and he is pitted against my favorite Conservative, Governor Jim Gilmore.  We all know Jim Gilmore initiated the PPTRA, or eliminating the Car Tax, and by last 2001 budget had dedicated $604 million to the program.

Mark Warner campaigned in 2001 on not raising taxes at all as governor of Virginia, plus finishing the elimination of the PPTRA (car tax) altogether.  During his budgets of 2002, 2003, 2004, and  2005, the  Commonwealth's expenditures  increased $5.9 billion, while the 2005 budget only dedicated $907 million to the PPTRA.  This amounts to a paltry $303 million in annual additonal dedicated funds to eliminating the PPTRA, beyond Jim Gilmore's $604 million.

The following year in Tim Kaine's first budget of 2006, the General Assembly froze the PPTRA appropriations at $950 million annually, or what at that time was estimated to be a 70% elimination of the tax on the citizens.   FY 2007 saw the same appropriation, so in reality, and as per Vivian's wishes; the PPTRA is actually reducing as a percentage of eliminating the overall car tax.  What I hear her saying though, is she wants to dedicate some nice chunks of that PPTRA funding and dedicate it to Transportation.  Not just slowly bleed the tax cut.

Fair enough Vivian... Her favored candidate Governor Mark Warner should step up to the plate and tell us exactly what he would do right now if he were Governor Kaine.  Ask the General Assembly to defund the PPTRA, and put the funds towards transportation, or continue to increase funding to eliminate the PPTRA?  Simple Math tells us that if $950 million is 70%, then $1.3 billion annually gets us to elimination.

Please Governor Warner, tell us how you would handle this?  I am absolutely sure that AP reporter, Bob 'six billion dollar lie' Lewis is ready to pose this question to Governor Warner himself, at the upcoming US Senate debate at the Homestead in a couple weeks?

Actually, I doubt that altogether.  I think that the panelists will be tossing softballs at Warner, and continuing what has become a MSM mantra that Governor Gilmore left a budget 'Mess'...  You know, he cut taxes....

Vivian, I hope you press for Warner to answer your call for eliminating, or reducing the PPTRA.  You're not going to let him, or Governor Kaine just walk on the issue, right? 

To cut the citizens taxes to spur economic growth.  Here is an old Atlantic Article discussing just that.  For instance:

President Bush may have it exactly wrong. A bear market may be more likely to decrease, rather than to increase, public support for his $1.6 trillion tax cut. A surprising finding in this month's Gallup Poll indicates that the more worried people are about the nation's economy, the less they support President Bush's tax cut.

Whoops, guess that guy got it wrong huh?  The Bush Tax cuts spurred the economy on, but this is just typical negativism to encourage the citizens from voting to keep their own money in their pockets, vs. funding a bottomless pit that is our Federal and State Governments.

Speaking of State Governments, this article addressing Governor Gilmore and the Car Tax Cut:

In Virginia, Gov. James S. Gilmore III is standing firmly behind his commitment to abolish the car tax. He has to. It's the issue that got him elected in 1997. Not only that, but President Bush has made Gilmore chairman of the Republican National Committee. What an embarrassment it would be if the GOP national chairman agreed to compromise his signature tax cut or allow it to become tied to revenue triggers, as moderates in Congress are urging the President to do with his tax cut.

But Virginia does not have the revenues to replace the car tax. And state law requires a balanced budget. What an embarrassment it is for the Republican governor to be squabbling with the state Legislature, which Republicans took control of last year for the first time in more than 100 years. The Legislature has to go back into special session to consider controversial spending cuts in education and transportation. Nothing is more likely to enrage voters in Northern Virginia, which faces an intractable congestion crisis.

Seems our Transportation Crisis knows no ends... such as the war on poverty... Think that will ever be solved? One thing is for sure, if you are part of the MSM, you will get gallons of ink at your disposal to encourage the funding of Government Gone Wild... It's just so much more sexy, than letting the people keep their own money.

I look forward to the day when the people get to keep the vast majority of their earnings, and the government has to hold a bake sale to expand welfare programs, and pay Congressional Salaries... How much money would we save if Congress only met every other year, for like 60 day sessions to set the budget?  They could come in, get it done, shut their pie-holes, and go back to work as the Citizen Legislators they were supposed to be.

Congressman... nothing but a bunch of grandstanding, Presidential wannabes.... Come home and work for a living you bunch of bums!

If HB 6055 passes, the people who will pay for it are John McCain and Jim Gilmore in 08.  Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli in 09 - and any GOPers who get a primary challenge or lose their seat in the general election.  This bad governance bleeds the base of Conservatives and Libertarians.

Regional Government Reveals the Rot in the Republican Party

HB 6055 is the son of Frankenstein (HB 3202) that was ruled Un-Constitutional by the Virginia Supreme Court.  The arrogance of trying to stuff this bill and its Regional Government down the throats of voters – again – reveals much of what is wrong in the elected caucus of the Republican Party of Virginia.  The Regional Government scam reveals the rot of political corruption like a surgeon cutting away the sores to show the cancer.

HB 6055 puts billions of dollars in the hands of the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)  The con the Republican bill HB 6055 is running skips putting the money in the Un-Constitutional Hampton Roads Transit Authority but shoves it at the MPO. The MPO, the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, and the Hampton Roads Transit Authority are the same people.  They meet at the same time.  The Republican shell game moves the new, higher taxes to the State Treasury in Richmond (as our Constitution requires) which dumps the money in a new holding account (professional thieves would use an off-shore bank), which sends the money to the MPO.

The MPO then manages the regional transportation projects for Hampton Roads/Tidewater.  Unfortunately, the HR MPO has been cited as one of the worst functioning (meaning operating contrary to public law) MPOs in the Nation.  The MPO is made up of appointed politicians representing the cities and counties and 4 big project advocacy representatives.  HB 6055 adds more politicians.

These appointed officials will spend more than $30b.  There is no oversight.  No checks and balances.  No separation of powers among the same body raising tolls, taking tolls, and spending tolls.  That is taxation without representation – again.

The decision on what to build was made back in 1997.  The construction of every project actually <b>INCREASES </b>congestion after completion.  HB 6055 adds improvements to the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel (HRBT), which would reduce congestion.  But the HRBT isn’t on the MPO list nor Is it established in funding priority in HB 6055.  It’s a fig leaf.

So, why do Republicans insist on creating the Regional Government in HB 6055 (the MPO now, not the HRTA) ?

It’s all about the money.  $30 to 35 billion is too much to pass up.

The appointed officials on the Regional Government aren’t engineers. They aren’t executives who have managed billion dollar programs for profit-earning corporations.  They bring absolutely no expertise – except how to spend other people's money on pet projects – to improve transportation.

So, the logic of HB 6055 is to give $35 billion dollars to politicians to hand out in contracts.  The Un-Constitutional HRTA has already spent $200k.  The first $50k went to Kaufmann and Canoles for legal services.   Republican State Senator Ken Stolle is a partner with Kaufmann and Canoles.  You can smell the rot even if you can’t see it yet.

Since the politicians of the MPO have no clue how to manage major engineering projects they will have to hire help.  This is where you can see the pus oozing.

These politicians will have hundreds of millions of dollars from year one to hire staff, rent offices or build them, hire transportation, more legal services, pay for meals, run executive off-sites, conduct ad campaigns to re-educate the public, put in the latest IT equipment, provide security, hire lobbyists, conduct environmental studies, and, above all, pay six figure salaries to retired and failed politician friends as ‘consultants’.

Eventually, huge contracts for the actual engineering will be awarded without accountability oversight or checks and balances or adjudication for disputes.  

The people who will make millions to billions in government contracts can afford to give tens of thousands of dollars to the politicians, or their friends or family or some other middle man.  But, the corruption will be done the genteel Virginia way.   No bags of money will change hands.   Just the right folks will get the contracts.  And there will be a lot of consultants – just the right folks again.

English-speaking People have built roads, ports, canals, bridges, ferries, railroads, airports, tunnels and subways in Virginia without Regional Governments for 400 years.

The People voted against Regional Governments with taxing authority in 1998.  

The People rejected Regional Government, the projects and the taxes like HB 6055 in 2002 over 2:1.  Polls indicate The People in Tidewater are against it about 3:1 today.

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled the Regional Government (HB 3202) Un-Constitutional in 2008.

There is no Constitutional, legal, technical, engineering, financial, moral, ethical or principled reason to have a Regional Government involved in building these big projects for HR/Tidewater.  None.

Yet, Republicans are going to try it again.  This pursuit of political power to control money and power is not a unique Republican condition.  It is the way of the world.  But, our Virginia Constitution is designed as a bulwark against such tyranny and thievery.  Our Constitution distributes powers, authority and accountability appropriately - with no Regional Governments.  However, it takes a vigilant public – and a press to do their duty to report news instead of shilling – to hold Virginia's politicians accountable.  

It can be done.  Ask my former Senator Marty Williams. It’s really a hard, painful, distasteful, disruptive fight within the Party.

The fact that this fight has to be fought within the Republican Party of Virginia exposes the source of the rot.  Only a few Republican politicians can be counted on to represent The People in Hampton Roads/Tidewater – and vote ‘No’ reflexively to HB 6055.  No to Regional Government because The People know it is a corrupt scam.  

Few Republicans will vote Conservatively on their own.  This is without mentioning the illogic and burden of new and higher local taxes, regressive taxes and taxes unrelated to transportation vs.  the Republican Creed of Virginia.  Or, the absence of project priorities to fund as you go.

Now, the elected Republicans will listen for voices to vote for HB 6055 and Regional Government  between now and 9 July.  Will they hear the special interests who will contribute thousands to politicians and gain millions in government spending or The People of Virginia?  It depends on who speaks up.

James Atticus Bowden

I agree completely with JAB, these regional govt. entities will rival the size of third world nations economies, and no doubt be governed as badly, with the exception of the genocide.

I joked in an earlier post about Jimmy Hoffa not being killed but instead moving to Chile, where he organized a truckers strike against that Federal Government for relief from high gas taxes.  I am going to reprint this because I think it is so illustrative of road taxes, and how they effect the national economy, private industry, and every day people.

My premise is that the Chilean gas tax system is done on a percentage basis whereby as fuel prices tripled so did the taxes imposed on the fuel.  Thereby, the Government experienced a windfall in tax collection due to the increased cost of the product.  That is why rebating 80% of the fuel tax to the truckers was probably revenue neutral for the government to build the roads, as opposed to our system, whereby we have a fixed tax per gallon of fuel.

Consider this and please visit the link and evaluate it as we enter into the special Transportation General Assembly session here in Virginia.  Let me also add that Chilean Truckers are probably independent, or owner operators as we call them here in the USA.  The most interesting feature of my first two trips to Chile was the number of privately owned buses.  Yes, each bus was owner operated.  A guy would stand in the street and direct them to the passengers for a fee.

Wild concept you say?  I do not know this for a fact, but I surmise that same situation is the case in Chile for freight trucks, because in the four trips there, I have never noticed any dominate trucking companies names on the sides of the trucks like you notice, JB Hunt, Schneider, CR England, etc here in the USA.  Hence the union to give them leverage in the Chilean Congress.

 Prost to Chile!)

 Maybe the Mob really just chased Jimmy Hoffa to Chile. Check out this story, "Chile Govt. Reaches Compromise with Trucking Industry", excerpt:

On the third day of the strike that put 6,000 trucks off the highways, Transportation Minister René Cortázar led round-table negotiations Thursday evening with seven trucking union directors, including CNDC President Juan Araya, to reach an agreement on fuel tax relief. To strike a deal, the government agreed to kick back 80 percent of the fuel taxes now paid by truckers. Initially, the government proposed a 25 percent reimbursement, then a 50 percent reimbursement.

After several tense hours and at least four different offers, Cortázar raised his offer to an 80 percent return on truckers' fuel taxes. Near 2 a.m. Friday morning, Araya finally compromised and called off the strike.

Remember just a couple months ago independent truckers tried to organize a one week strike in America to protest the high cost of diesel.... They couldn't pull it off because they lack the organization and our economy is probably too big to pull this off.  Chile is a nation 30 to 40 miles wide (literally), and over 3,000 miles long.  The primary economy is located around Santiago and Valparaiso the major port, and all within an hour and a half drive.

Notice who the strike was against though... not the oil companies, not some big mean low wage paying company... no Chile has a thriving free market economy.... the strike was against the high fuel taxes levied by the government!

Talk about forcing a tax holiday on the Federal Government... well it happened.. because the truckers needed a break, and the citizens know who ends up paying for higher fuel prices, and the associated taxes... Them!

Rut Ro Rickey!  There's more, what else did the citizens say?:

“What happens with all the drivers that also use their car every day to go to work?” Zaldívar asked. El Mercurio's survey of 600 residents in greater Santiago found that 83.5 percent of participants said the same tax relief should be extended to taxis, and 82.3 percent said buses should get the same rights, too. Over three-fourths said the tax rebate should even extend to certain passenger vehicles.

This looks like it needs more research, but apparently the gas tax is set on a percentage of the fuel price, and not per gallon like the Federal and State gas taxes here in the USA...  My God, if our taxes were the same way with some tax-a-holics attitudes, the Feds and states will be wishing for a percentage too!

If that were the case, we'd never get to drill in ANWR or offshore... It would drive down the price of fuel, and the resulting gas tax collections.  Like our ever tax hungry pols, would ever go for that!

RK is reporting that Governor Kaine is facing some crucial appointments, check it out:

Solution:
The appointments that Governor Kaine makes will be critical to insuring clean air for all Virginians.  We are urging the Governor to appoint thoughtful, well informed citizens committed to progress in meeting current air quality standards as well as future standards for greenhouse gases

Action Needed:
Protect Clean Air in Virginia! Click here to send a letter (example below the fold) to Governor Kaine on his appointments to the Citizens Air Board. Please take action ASAP!

I wonder if these appointments need to be approved by the General Assembly?  I wonder if Delegate Bob Marshall would vote to confirm citizen members to this board whose goal is to deny the permit for the Wise County Coal Plant?

We already know that Marshall is against drilling in ANWR and voted against allowing off shore drilling in Virginia.  I can only imagine that he shares the same view as one of his commenters on STD, check this out, I haven't even heard something like this out of a Democrats mouth:

It's nice to see that someone finally is accepting that Marshal will be in the race with Warner.

Marshall has a very strong position and opinion on supporting clean safe nucelar power.

Jim Gilmore does not. He supports black lung disease energy and selling abortion pills to your daughter, not to mention AMNESTY TO ILLEGAL INTRUDERS of our sovereign nation via a registration program that makes them 'guest workers" -- just like Mark Warner, and Just like Barack Hussein Obama and Hillarious Clinton.

Check your rhetoric at the shad planking mister, where Warner endorsed Gilmore as the man he'd like to run against.

May 27, 2008 | Eric Martin

Bob Marshall should be endorsing off shore drilling in Virginia so the royalties can be used to fund transporation needs, and save us from Kaine's incessent tax increase campaigns!  Bob Save us from the Tax Man!