State Politics
Creigh Deeds Rally
Oct 28th
Creigh Deeds Rally 2009 - Norfolk, VA
Before I continue, let me enlighten you if you did not previously know my sentiments. It is always difficult for me to choose a candidate due to my pickiness and tendency towards a candidate that is, in my opinion, the most good for the most situations. In addition, I tend to vote for the person that is not the incumbent, unless (in the rare instance) the incumbent has actually made improvements to our problems. Politically, I tend to vote more Republican than Democrat, however I will never vote for somebody solely on what party they belong to. My preferred party is actually Libertarian because I feel that the less government the better.Regardless of what I believe however, I also feel that it is every individual’s own duty to decide who they should vote for based on their own personal preferences.
That said, I attended the Creigh Deeds Rally at the Ted Constant Convocation Center in Norfolk yesterday. I was not planning on attending, but my grandfather called me up with an extra ticket and asked me to go. So I did. At first, I felt kind of dirty and uncomfortable actually, being in a room with a large crowd of Democrats. I quietly failed to mention to those around me that I had not voted for Obama, nor did I think that he has been as spectacular of a President as they did. Regardless, as I snapped a total of 1,160 photographs, I listened to each Democratic candidate endorse themselves and each other. In attendance and speaking, we had Steve Shannon (Attorney General Candidate), Jody Wagner (Lieutenant Governor Candidate), City of Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones, current Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, Creigh Deeds (of course), and President Obama. I actually got the most influence from Mr. Deeds’s speech. He was not a particularly good public speaker, but he was intelligent. He spoke of how his experiences growing up have shaped his view of politics today. Compared to McDonnell, he seems to be more “Virginian,” having lived in Virginia for most of his life. McDonnell, on the other hand has lived virtually everywhere else. Deeds knows what he wants to do and what should be done, his only problem is explaining it during his campaign stops.
I am voting for Deeds on Election Day. I feel that it is the correct decision for myself and I hope that it would be for you, but that is for you and only you to decide.
As I mentioned earlier, President Obama was there and regardless of who you are or how you feel about him, it still is a great feeling to shake hands with the President of the United States of America.
Finally, everybody always found pictures of Bush that made him appear less than intelligent. I always found them hillarious and so, had to post this one of President Obama:
"Oooooo, a teleprompter..." 
I just had to.
Money for Highways
Oct 27th
Most would also agree that the region’s highways are also important to the local military facilities including Camp Peary, Yorktown Weapons Station, Fort Eustis, Langley AFB, Norfolk NAS, Little Creek Amphib Base, Fort Story, Oceana NAS, and Dam Neck. I’m sure I missed something, but regardless, everyone has seen how much traffic is lessened by a holiday where the Navy does not have to report. Completely ignoring the toll that military traffic takes on our highways, my point is that if something happened to some aspect of our system, the Navy would be crippled. I’m not talking about an attack or something like that, I’m talking about a severe traffic accident. Or perhaps a hurricane. I know that during a hurricane evacuation all lanes of traffic are directed away from the area. How are the military supposed to get to the base to take the ships out of harbor?
Do you see my point? I think that the continuing neglect of our highways has even greater national security complications than any other threat you can think of. What good is a top-notch Defense Department if they can’t get to their bases? The “National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (1956)” renamed the highway system to the “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.” Eisenhower even announced it as the “National Defense Highway System.” In fact the “National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (1956)” specifically states that the System’s “primary importance [is] to the national defense.” With all this in mind, I think that it is fair to say that, with such a National Security importance, Hampton Roads has been cheated out of the funds necessary to maintain the acceptable level of service that is required to maintain a quality Highway.
The Navy was opposed to a bridge being used as part of an expanded HRBT because they were afraid it might be destroyed in an act of terrorism and would leave all the ships stuck in the harbor. What good is a clear exit if the personnel required to operate the ships are stuck in traffic? Not only as Hampton Roads or Virginia residents, but as United States citizens, we should require Congress to bring our National Security up to par by fixing our highways. China, which is technically a ‘developing country,’ is using American highway and traffic engineers to design a world-class highway system. Meanwhile, America is utilizing Chinese … cheap crap, drywall, and substandard steel to effectively undo our position as a world power.
NOTE TO CONGRESS: FIX IT
More Money for a New HRTA
Oct 14th
- $10 automobile inspection fee
- 5 percent tax on automobile repairs
- Grantor’s tax of 40 cents for every $100 of assessed value when selling a home
- Motor vehicle rental tax of 2 percent
- One-time vehicle registration fee of 1 percent
- Annual vehicle registration fee of $10
- 2 percent gas tax
The hardest thing to think about is what you can charge for without making people feel put out or overwhelmed. I think that any fee/tax needs to benefit those who drive cars that wear lightly on the roads and cost those with heavier vehicles more. Virginia should raise overall registration fees for vehicles. Right now, there is only an $11 dollar difference in fee cost for registering a small car ($38.75) versus a a heavy truck (7,500 GVW – $49.75). Compare this to someplace like D.C., where the same comparison shows that a small car costs $72 and a similarly sized truck costs $300. Don’t get me wrong, if VA raised our rates that high I think a revolution would be necessary, but we should go higher. These rates would be applied statewide. Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia’s collected fees would go to our respective Authorities. The rest of the state’s collections would go right into the capital budget of VDOT. While we are re-evaluating fees, we should consider a discount for fuel economy. I was thinking 30 mpg would be a good start. This would encourage people to buy more fuel efficient cars which are usually lighter and wear less on the roads.
The next source of revenue is one which makes most people cringe. I am talking about the gas tax. Nobody wants to pay more for gas. Interestingly, those that oppose it the most are usually the same people that either drive gas-guzzlers or drive hours each way for their daily commute. I know that it will be tough. For me, for you, for everyone. We need to raise the money. I think an additional 5 cents would be a good start. It would put VA right around the national average (we are below it now) and well below the national maximum. If we had raised the rate when the prices started going down, the effect would have been near unnoticed.
The next touchy subject that nobody wants to talk about but most kind of know in the back of their minds that they would be beneficial in the long run: tolls. Hampton Roads has a number of proposed Public/Private Partnerships brewing right now. Each of them has something in common. Tolls. If our area could fund more road projects like the Chesapeake Expressway, we might get further. For those of you that may not know, the CE was funded by a loan from VDOT and by bonds, both of which are repayed through tolls. These tolls don’t need to be high. They can be simple 5 or 10 cent tolls on heavily traveled thoroughfares. A toll as low as 5 cents would only cost the average commuter $1 per month. As low as this seems, a 5-cent toll on, hypothetically, the I-64/264 interchange, could generate $6 million per year. Or a 20-cent toll on the Midtown Tunnel, which would generate $5 million/year. A 5-cent toll on the HRBT, the Midtown, the Downtown, the High-Rise, and the MMBT could generate a combined $7 million per year. All of these are hypothetical of course, but if we looked at small tolls that wouldn’t hurt anybody but would collectively raise enough money to matter, we might be able to get somewhere. After our projects are built and paid for, we could keep the tolls low (around $.05) and perhaps only toll in one direction, so that we can continue to pay for maintenance. All of these tolls would be collected completely electronically and could be billed monthly or paid online.
All of these proposals are hypothetical. They are just a sample of what we should do. We can no longer rely on state or federal money to pay for our roads. While I find that deplorable on multiple other levels, we have to keep thinking about our future. Remember: No Transportation = No Economy = No Jobs. Our roads are as important as water and electricity.
A New Hampton Roads Transportation Authority
Oct 13th
The reason the initiative failed was due to the lack of research by the GA. They should have known that a non-elected body could not tax. There are two possible solutions to breath life back into the HRTA. The first is that the GA could impose the fees and taxes and then earmark them to be devoted to the HRTA. The GA, however, being made up mostly of those that lack the testicular fortitude of a flea, refuse to take leadership of anything above cashing their paychecks. The second and slightly more plausible solution would be to create an HRTA board that we actually got to elect. If each city’s residents got to elect the representative to serve on the board, then theoretically, it would be constitutionally acceptable for it to levy taxes. The problem with this, however, is that the board might deteriorate into a bunch of whiny kids wanting to get the most for their city. I think a practical solution would involve making sure that the mission plan of the board is written clearly enough to make it impossible for them force one issue over another. They would also need both an end strategy and a process to get other projects added to the end of the list.
The second issue is how would they collect more money. I will save that for the next post.
Hope for HRTA
Mar 6th
