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"Profile in Timidity"
The Richmond Times-Dispatch August 29, 2012 editorial hammers the proverbial nail head. The Bell Tolls: Transportation Reprinted from Richmond Times-Dispatch |
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"The Virginia Department of Transportation has ambitious plans for the revenue generated by tolls...
"According to VDOT, current funding cannot meet the needs for maintenance and improvements associated with the I-95 corridor. Tolls would close some of the gap. Tolls remain a legitimate way to raise money for highways and related infrastructure. They also remain a secondary option. Ideally, tolls supplement gasoline taxes. "Virginia's political climate discourages common-sense approaches to transportation. The gasoline tax has not been raised since the 1980s; in constant dollars the levy does not buy as much as it once did. Conservatives believe in paying the state's bills - or at least they should. Hostility to big government ought not to translate into opposition to all government. Transportation defines a core service. It stakes a legitimate claim to public resources. The gasoline tax is a user's fee. Raise it.
"The Times-Dispatch does not oppose tolls in principle. Tolls should be complements, not substitutes or political dodges. The wish list accompanying Virginia's application for tolls on I-95 makes a compelling case for increasing the gasoline tax. What we have instead is a profile in timidity."
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