CALLS FOR PRIVATE-SECTOR TRANSPORTATION SOLUTIONS, VA-MD TECHWAY AND ABANDONMENT OF DULLES METRO “BOONDOGGLE”
Charges Bolling with Making Transportation Mess Worse through Support of HB 3202 with its Unconstitutional Tax Scheme and Abusive Driver Fees
Alexandria, VA, May 21 – Speaking at (location), Republican Lieutenant Governor Candidate Patrick Muldoon today laid out the Transportation and Jobs Planks of his Looking Out for Virginia Agenda, calling for private-sector-driven solutions to “escape our transportation trap,” including a privately-funded TechWay linking the Virginia and Maryland Tech Corridors and privately-operated bus service to displace the $5-billion Dulles Metro “boondoggle.”
Muldoon, a lawyer trained as an engineer, said, “Ask any Virginian and he or she will tell you: the #1 problem we face every single day is transportation. Very simply, we’re sick of sitting stuck in traffic. And what has the Kaine/Bolling Administration accomplished to fix this problem? If you said, zip, zero, nix and nada, you’d be close to right – but not quite. In fact, they forced through a plan that would have made things worse, by raising taxes while selling your rights down the river by introducing abusive abuser fees and allowing unelected, bureaucratic regional authorities to levy new fees on you.”
The candidate decried, “a broken paradigm: We build new communities far away from where jobs are and insufficient infrastructure to get their residents from there to here and back again. Then, we spend transportation money according to political formulas rather than economic need. The result is gold-plated country byways, congested urban and suburban arteries, and overpriced, underutilized public transportation boondoggles.”
In response, Muldoon laid out the Looking Out for Virginians on the Road plank of his Looking Out for Virginia Agenda:
- End the practice of having separate authorities planning transportation and development and to
- Take the problem out of the hands of politicians by moving to private-sector-driven solutions
Stated the candidate, “Private-sector involvement would cut the Gordian knot created by the need for new transportation solutions but the lack of will to direct revenues to them. Because private-sector entities will see traffic jams not as a political football, but as an economic opportunity. And in risking their own money, they will make sure funds are spent the right way in the right places to ease those jams and get us where we belong.”
Muldoon called for two specific private-sector projects:
- A privately-financed and operated, quick-to-implement mass-transit bus solution using the existing Dulles Access Road – instead of the multi-year, multibillion-dollar Dulles Rail Project boondoggle.
- A privately-financed and operated TechWay extending across the Potomac River to link the Dulles Technology Corridor with Maryland’s Biotech Corridor.
The TechWay is central to Muldoon’s Looking Out for Virginia Jobs plank, which also includes:
- A referendum for repeal of the state income and corporate taxes, with the candidate noting that nine states with no income tax have generated 90 percent more jobs over the last two decades.
- The creation of a Clean Coal Cluster around Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, focusing on a viable, cost-efficient and abundant Virginia energy resource and making Virginia the World’s Clean Coal Capital.
The full text of Muldoon’s prepared remarks follows:
From time to time, I’ll hear from delegates who are asking why I would challenge an incumbent Republican lieutenant governor like Bill Bolling. It’s very simple: I’m running to get our Republican Party back to Looking Out for Virginians by always living up to our conservative principles … and always doing the right thing, not just the politically expedient thing.
Voters across the Commonwealth and across the political spectrum are tired of the same old politicians doing the same old things in the same old way and getting the same old non-results. We’re tired of watching Republicans and Democrats play fiscal footsie with our money to buy votes.
Virginians are looking for an alternative. But we don’t want that alternative to be bigger, more intrusive and more expensive government. We’re looking for smaller, smarter government, government that looks out for us. That’s why I’ve entitled my issues platform the Looking Out for Virginia Agenda.
If there’s one area where Virginians need change, it’s transportation. Ask any Virginian and he or she will tell you: the #1 problem we face every single day is transportation. Very simply, we’re sick of sitting stuck in traffic. That’s especially true here in Northern Virginia, and along the Tech Corridor.
And what has the Kaine/Bolling Administration accomplished to fix this problem? If you said, zip, zero, nix and nada, you’d be close to right – but not quite. In fact, they forced through a plan that would have made things worse, by raising taxes while selling your rights down the river by introducing abusive abuser fees and allowing unelected, bureaucratic regional authorities to levy new fees on you.
Fortunately, the people of Virginia – and the state Supreme Court – said “thanks, but no thanks” to the Kaine/Bolling non-solution. By the way, Bill Bolling will tell you he led the fight to get rid of the abuser fees. But in a very familiar pattern, he was for the fees before he was against them.
In any event, the lack of a workable plan leaves us right back where we started: stuck.
The problem is a broken paradigm: We build new communities far away from where jobs are and insufficient infrastructure to get their residents from there to here and back again. Then, we spend transportation money according to political formulas rather than economic need. The result is gold-plated country byways, congested urban and suburban arteries, and overpriced, underutilized public transportation boondoggles.
But there is a formula for escaping our transportation trap, and it provides the heart of my Looking Out for Virginians On the Road plank of My Looking Out for Virginia Agenda. First, we need to end the practice of having separate authorities planning transportation and development. But more important, we need to take the problem out of the hands of politicians, and let the private sector address it, driven by the profit motive and funded by user fees, not general revenues.
Private-sector involvement would cut the Gordian knot created by the need for new transportation solutions but the lack of will to direct revenues to them. Because private-sector entities will see traffic jams not as a political football, but as an economic opportunity. And in risking their own money, they will make sure funds are spent the right way in the right places to ease those jams and get us where we belong.
In fact, I want to talk about two of these “opportunities” where I will seek private-sector involvement and investment to break through transportation logjams in a cost-effective manner. And both of them involve the Tech Corridor.
The first is a privately-financed and operated, quick-to-implement mass-transit bus solution using the existing Dulles Access Road – instead of the multi-year, multibillion-dollar Dulles Rail Project boondoggle. Face it … we all know that Metro to Dulles is a waste of money. It’s a prestige project that has nothing to do with economic viability or sound principles of investment. It will be a drain on taxpayers for decades to come … in a Metro system that is already perennially facing budget problems.
Meanwhile, buses can provide much better service – including access from many more locations, higher frequency and express runs. Plus, studies have shown that bus service could be provided for a third of the cost. Moreover, it would be possible to get it up and running in a fraction of the time it will take to build out Metro. And of course, bus service could easily be provided by private-sector players instead of at taxpayer’s expense. It’s not too late to stop this wasteful project and redirect the funding to more important priorities while letting the private sector take the lead.
The second specific project is a privately financed and operated TechWay extending across the Potomac River to link the Dulles Technology Corridor with Maryland’s Biotech Corridor. A TechWay has long been discussed, because it would not only ease traffic on the Toll Road, the Beltway and Route 15, but also – and this is critical – create untold potential for explosive growth and new jobs. When the TechWay was under study at the beginning of this decade, the Washington Council of Governments a second Potomac River Crossing would reduce regional traffic by 309 million miles per year. It would also remove much of the northbound traffic on Route 15, not only a dangerous route but also an area so-called “smart growth” advocates seek to protect.
And the criticism of the TechWay by the NIMBY crowd only underscores its advantage. A frequently cited study by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation stated, and I quote: “between 61 and 78 percent of the traffic on the proposed new river crossing would be induced by the presence of a new bridge and the development it would bring about.”
To which I respond: DUH. That’s exactly the point of the TechWay – to promote business development and new jobs by linking these two powerful job creating regions – to make 1 plus 1 equal 4. Surveys taken around the turn of the decade showed massive public support for the project … support I believe would be even stronger in a down economy. It’s time to move past the NIMBY elements, get private investors going and get the TechWay built.
The TechWay is also part of my plan to Look Out for Virginia Jobs. In the 1990s, Virginia enjoyed a boom built around this very tech corridor. The reason was that our Commonwealth clearly saw the market opportunity around a burgeoning information technology industry and created the conditions for growth … based on sound economic principles, not loony, politically correct fairy tales.
Bill Bolling’s ideas for job creation involve pushing for government intervention to promote alternative energy sources, like ethanol, biodiesel, solar and wind. The problem is that all of these cost more in energy and cash to build and operate than they will ever generate. “All of the Above” makes for a nifty political slogan that fits right into Al Gore’s global warming agenda. But it is almost always the wrong answer on a multiple-choice exam … and unscientific, uneconomic and ill-considered proposals like these are always the wrong answer for Virginia’s economic future.
I should know. I’m the only statewide candidate for Lieutenant Governor who is an engineer and has operated my own solar and wind energy devices on a farm, and has a patent pending for a gas turbine. I understand the limitations of these alternative energy options at scale.
My Looking Out for Virginia Jobs plank is based on sound economics and strong incentives for growth. In addition to the TechWay, it includes a referendum for repeal of the state income and corporate taxes. Repeal would unleash private capital and enterprise and transforming our entire Commonwealth into an engine for new jobs. Research has shown that the 9 states with no income tax have generated 90 percent more jobs over the last two decades than states with income taxes.
I would also push to create a Clean Coal Cluster around Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, focusing on a viable, cost-efficient and abundant Virginia energy resource and making Virginia the World’s Clean Coal Capital.
Like all good government, getting Virginias where they want to go and creating jobs are not about running from our conservative principles. They are not about hoping to ride politically expedient, slogan-driven but scientifically and economically brain-dead hobbyhorses like Metro and alternative fuels to re-election. They are about doing the right thing, in the right way for Virginia. The Republican Way.
A quote that has been attributed to everyone from Ben Franklin to Albert Einstein holds that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. Insanity would be to elect the same officeholders who got us into our transportation and jobs messes … and expect something other than the same get-along, go-along, tax-along, spend-along, stumble-along politics.
To steal a phrase from a famous TV host, we need bold, fresh approaches. We need government that works. That’s why I’m running …and that’s what I’ll work for if I’m nominated next week.
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