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AN OLD CHINESE prov-
Politicians in Virginia must develop a comprehensive plan that establishes what they are trying to accomplish, arranges priorities, and sets timetables for measurable results. And this must be done before they allocate the next round of tens of billions of dollars for transportation projects.
The full implications of the Virginia Supreme Court's decision to upend the most repellent aspects of the controversial transportation plan have not been fully appreciated by either the media or the elected officials scrambling for a quick fix to preserve reputations and the piles of money the law would lay in their laps. Seen by many as nothing more than
new revolution
How fitting it is that the New American Revolution
Perhaps Virginia's Lexington Green was the suit filed by a citizen in Roanoke charging two state senators with ethical lapses in their efforts to obstruct the restoration of individual property rights. Though unsuccessful, the suit so frightened the pols that the protections they had once refused were rushed into law. Virginia's Concord may have been last November's election when many of those responsible were flushed from office, and Republican influence over state policies diminished.
Students of American history know that the next big event was Bunker Hill, soon followed by the evacuation
serving the people
Even when they do--which is by no means a certainty--the citizens' quest for better government is far from over. Paraphrasing Churchill, the British retreat from Boston was not the beginning of the end, it was the middle of the beginning, and much work remains before we get a government serving the people, not vice versa.
Having succeeded in wrecking the flawed transportation law, citizens must continue to press their case against government and insist that we do not want it replaced by something of equal incompetence, though legal. Indeed, if the last few years reveal anything, it is that many officials are simply not fit to fulfill the responsibilities they have taken on. If the same crowd went back to the drawing board, a second draft would not be an improvement.
There is a remedy to this mess. Last year the independent auditor for the state of Washington hired a team of experts to assess the performance and policies of those responsible for transportation in his state. The findings were so devastating that a few weeks later voters rejected a referendum for a tax increase that would have wasted $18 billion on sketchy transportation projects.
Sound familiar? Didn't area voters in a 2002 referendum reject higher transportation taxes in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads due to lack of confidence in the wacky schemes promoted by public officials? Yes, they did, and that's why the legislature and governor excluded uncooperative area voters from their newest wacky schemes by not allowing a referendum and by establishing regional transportation authorities composed of appointed, rather than elected, participants. In response, voters should insist that Virginia's political establishment stand down from any renewed effort at transportation policy-making until a similar audit is conducted in this state, and its findings presented to the people.
In the case of Virginia, the audit should also take a careful look at the institutional structure that oversees the program, including the metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and the regional transportation commissions, both having limited expertise in transportation. Indeed, for those who serve on these commissions, an absence of transportation expertise appears to be a prerequisite for appointment.
In my community, transport policy is governed by Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, a state bureaucracy working under the direction of another state bureaucracy, the George Washington Regional Commission. Most of the commissioners are locally elected officials appointed by their colleagues.
In my district a politically active mortician appointed to the Commonwealth Transportation Board, had FAMPO authorize tax dollars to build a replica slave ship for a nonexistent museum. He has since left, but other local commissioners want to use transportation funds to leverage local taxpayer dollars for costly corporate welfare projects favoring influential developers. Is it any wonder that the citizens, when asked, refuse to give these people their tax dollars knowing full well they are not competent to spend them?
government failings?
With an independent audit presumably exposing Virginia's manifest government failings, the next step is to use the findings to replace bureaucratic discretion with the requirement that bureaucrats meet quantitative performance measures related to meaningful congestion relief, cost-effective mobility, safety, and infrastructure preservation. Of course, none of these are listed as goals by my local commission, although its affiliated MPO favors "transportation choice," as if transportation had parallels with today's reproductive-rights movement.
ride herd on officials
With quantitative measures of performance in place, and public officials required to meet explicit goals benefiting the motorists funding the program--rather than the business community that funds the politicians--there might be some hope for Virginia.
However, that relief will only come if the citizens ride herd on their elected officials, and daily remind them of who serves whom, and that the desires of the state's business communities are often in conflict with those of the voters. This is the essence of the New American Revolution to restore freedom and independence to the ordinary people of Virginia, and then to the nation.
While the transportation legislation is a start, public safety and public education should be next on the agenda. And winning it all will necessitate a continuous struggle, with political combat every day, as voters aggressively defend and retrieve their rights from those privileged by government favor.
Ronald D. Utt is an adjunct scholar with the Virginia Institute for Public Policy and a political economist with The Heritage Foundation.
