Ask the average person if the government should learn to live within its means; most would say, "Yes."

Tell the average person that he or she should just learn to live with poorly maintained and congested, dangerous roads; most would say, "Heck no. Government has a responsibility to adequately maintain its transportation network."

Yet, after 25 years of failing to receive new long-term funding, Virginia's transportation network is falling into a greater state of disrepair and inadequacy.

Consider the following:

• The Highway Maintenance and Operating Fund is inadequate. More than $4 billion has been transferred from the Transportation Trust Fund for construction to pay for maintenance.
• More than 27,000 lane miles of secondary roads have substandard pavement.
• Most transportation revenues continue to be below traditional levels.
• Virginia's Transportation Secretary has said the state's construction program will be essentially non-existent by FY 2017.
• Virginia has one of the nation's strongest economies. Transportation taxes and per capita spending on transportation are among the nation's lowest.
• Bonds, tolls, infrastructure banks and public-private partnerships are all part of the solution, but fall far short, individually or collectively, to meet Virginia's well-documented needs.

The University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service Newsletter has published an Alliance examination of Virginia's Transportation Funding Crisis in detail. It does not conclude that higher taxes and fees are the only answer. However, it does document the fact that Virginia's transportation needs cannot be met without them and that Virginia has ample broad-based resources to meet them and still remain a low tax state.

To read The Virginia Newsletter in its entirety, click here.

Transportation taxes and fees paid by Virginians today are not adequate to maintain the system we've built or the system we need.