Or at least all spring

March 10, 2008 12:15 am

I propose to fight it out along this line if it takes all summer.

--Ulysses S. Grant, 1864

HOUSE of Delegates Speaker Bill Howell rightly says that the court-nixed regional-funding component of the 2007 transportation plan could be legislatively fixed "in two hours." Changing the Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads authorities created by that law from taxing agents, which the state Supreme Court found unconstitutional, to administrative agents for other taxing bodies (local governments, the General Assembly) would require a few pen strokes, a few perfunctory votes.

The Stafford County Republican is also right that merely dumping money on VDOT, which still has room for reform, is no guarantee that Virginia's mobility needs will be met; that localities' land-use decisions can make road dollars do more; and, not least, that the 2007 act generates useful transportation funding.

Yet the doughnut tire in a driver's trunk can be useful, too, if his regular one develops a fast leak, which describes Virginia's transportation network before Richmond acted last year. But no sensible person tries to drive far on a doughnut. That's why the General Assembly should seize the moment created by the court and slap four high-performance radials on state transportation, replacing the Krispy Kremes of 2007.

Exaggeration? Consider: (1) Even if the 2007 plan's regional aspect is repaired, Virginia overall faces more than $1 billion in unfunded statewide maintenance needs (never mind new construction), including $260 million this very year, notes Virginians for Better Transportation. (2) While the current plan may yield $1 billion per year (much via new debt), a 2004 GA study put Virginia's 20-year mobility deficit just for roads and bridges at $74.2 billion. (3) This work looms partly because inflation has shrunk by 40 percent transportation dollars generated by the state gas tax since 1987, when the tax was last raised.

The state Senate proposes tax and fee increases to finance a lasting, statewide transportation program. Now it's time for the main architect of the 2007 law and its main enabler to take the stage.

Mr. Howell should throw his support to the Senate's funding ideas--especially the highway-user-paid gas tax--bringing as many GOP delegates as possible with him. This would cost him the speakership, he would have to caucus with lepers and tramps, and Grover Norquist would have kittens. But such a sacrificial move would win him an honorable place in the annals of state governance--and keep faith with the congestion-vexed voters who elected him to improve traffic movement here.

Meanwhile, Gov. Kaine should call a special legislative session and keep it going, Grant-like, until Virginians' future mobility is vouchsafed. Posterity praises boldness, which doesn't tee off contemporary Virginians, either.