and slogans haven't been getting it done.
Virginia has obligated half of its discretionary federal transportation stimulus funding.
The Federal Highway Administration has accepted the state's list of $287 million in highway and transit projects proposed for stimulus funding, the Virginia Department of Transportation said yesterday.
June 29 was the deadline for the state to nail down how it will spend 50 percent of the $576.6 million in special federal money for transportation.
The 50 percent obligation milestone means that the Commonwealth Transportation Board, VDOT and the state Department of Rail and Public Transportation have been given the green light to begin spending the discretionary funding for transportation projects statewide.
VDOT has advertised $246 million in projects and has awarded $81 million in contracts so far.
Most Virginians look at VDOT and see an agency so fiscally emaciated that it can't even afford to keep rest areas open or medians mowed.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell looks at the Virginia Department of Transportation and sees ... flab.
He told The Washington Times that if he's elected governor, he'll seek budget cuts for the transportation agency, along with Virginia's chintzy Medicaid program.
McDonnell followed up a pledge to cut two crucial and severely underfunded programs with this bit of positive, happy nonsense:
"I'm trying during this campaign to help to rebrand our party as the party of positive, happy, friendly, conservative leadership that's pro-growth, pro-free enterprise, pro-economic development. And that's really what we stand for."
There's nothing pro-growth about starving Virginia's transportation program -- which is why the Virginia Chamber of Commerce understands the need for "dedicated, stable and permanent revenue sources" to fund transportation, even as McDonnell's party remains reflexively opposed to any solution involving tax increases.
Sadly, McDonnell believes the state GOP's problems are about image, not substance -- and mainly a reflection of the failures of the national party.
"The Republican brand at the federal level has been tarnished six out of the last eight years, or the eight years where the Bush administration had a Republican majority and yet the national debt about doubled. We did not make progress on Social Security and immigration. We had congressmen doing some bad things that landed them in prison. That is not a great brand to create for the Republican Party," McDonnell told The Washington Times.
It's certainly true that the national party has been the root cause of many of its own woes, but the state party hasn't exactly been covering itself with glory.
For instance, in Wednesday's Washington Post, state Republicans had the absolute gall to complain that Virginia was the last state to complete its application for highway funds from the federal stimulus package.
"Of everything Virginia receives in its package, the one item that would stimulate the economy is the money for transportation," Sen. Ryan T. McDougle, R-Hanover, told The Post. "It's difficult to understand why we would not be moving faster."
Really? Is it so difficult? Since he took office, Gov. Tim Kaine has been wrestling with the House GOP over funding for transportation. VDOT has had to slash billions of dollars in projects as its funding has, as predicted, dried up.
In recent months, VDOT has only had money enough for routine maintenance, not new construction. As Bob Chase, executive director of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance, told The Post, "This delay is [due] in part, to a large degree, that Virginia is failing to adequately fund transportation."
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17 comments:
This is something that has impressed me about you since I first heard you speak in 2003. You have a clear vision of what should be taking place, and what is being neglected in the name of party politics and power. You can take some rightful satisfaction that now people are beginning to wake up and see what you were trying to warn us about Lowell. Thank you for hanging in there.
blah blah blah blah. I dont drive on the inerstate so dont expect me to pay for it. I have a four wheel drive so I dont care about plowing snow or dirt roads. I don't have no kids in school so what do I care if school buses get around. People dont have to pay for roads and bridges. Gubment is just grabing control of our life!
Shari, you must be the only person that thinks that way look at his last campaign what a joke
By CHANGE BHO must have meant higher unemployment, more soldiers over seas and money out the window.
Lowell please don't cry, you party hack. Maybe she will stay with you.Maybe you should sell some farm land and buy her a fancy car.
Funny how a mindless hack is so quick to accuse someone else of his sin. An anonymous coward on top of it.
Anon is a prime example of why I no longer associate with the GOP. Fulk is a prime example of why I have begun supporting Democrats. All anyone needs to do is look at how each one represents his stance to see the night and day difference. Just look at how the GOP troll views paying for roads everyone benefits from having in place. Trolls are ugly stinky beasts.
And not bright at all. But what they lack in intelligence, they make up for with an extra dose of stupidity.
Screw all three of you! It's fack republicans like you who have ruin this country! And ever since women like Shari and Toni D. got the vote thing have been all down hill. Women should stay home and have babies. Not hurt their little heads trying to think man thoughts. Cry some more party hack.
Well I can see what kind of character (or lack thereof)mister anon is dealing from. Blaming women for the present state of things? Where does that come from "little" man? Your insecurity speaking for you?
Impotence in the face of a changing world?
Shari maybe you should be talking to Lowell he may be coming up a little SHORT, that may have caused his troubles at home.
If Tim Kaine would actually work on the problems in VA instead of trying to work on his on political career maybe he could get something done he was elected to work for the state of VA not the DNC. This Democrat is fed up with Tim Kaine. I will be voting for a Republican this time around for the first time in my life.
Lowell i really think the problems you have with Dianne may have started back when you promised her if she ran for the clerks position as a Democrat she would win she lost faith in you. You really don't have any luck winning races do you party hack.
Anon, Your extreme cowardice is over the top. Typical of the "I'm going to rant because I'm insecure and want attention" GOP. You ARE the reason why people are leaving the republican party in droves. Even the so-called christian movement is moving away from hatred and intolerance and toward christ-like social acceptance of all. I bet you make your family proud....
Other anon, you're giving these douchebags way too much traffic. They ain't worth it. They're nothing but mindless Dem hacks, so arguing is pointless...let this cesspool of free thinking be ignored, as it rightly deserves.
With that said...Toni D. & Travis P., how cowardly is "Visualize Politics", who posts on here? You think that's his/her given name? And Bubby...is that their true identity? And Travis P. could be made up for all anyone knows. Tools, the lot of you...
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