ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 7, 1997 TAG: 9704070032
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
A 1986 package of tax increases for transportation improvements helped fuel economic growth in Virginia. It may be time to step on that pedal again.
THERE they go again - talking tax increases for roads. The nerve! Wasn't it just yesterday they raised Virginia's gas tax, sales tax and titling tax to build roads?
Actually, it was 11 years and three governors ago that the General Assembly, at the behest of then-Gov. Gerald Baliles, approved that tax-increase package. It wasn't just for roads, but for improvements in all the state's transportation modes. And while the panel that fashioned the package was called the Commission on Transportation in the 21st Century, it didn't envision meeting needs for more than 10 years.
The 10 years is more than up - and it's entirely appropriate for Virginia's lawmakers to take a new, hard look at the state's transportation infrastructure to see whether it's due for another upgrade.
Considering the vital role that transportation plays in preventing Virginia's economy, commerce and population from coming to a standstill, it would be shortsighted of the assembly not to do so.
If increased revenue is required to keep goods and people moving, a tax increase may be necessary. However much that prospect causes indigestion for taxpayers, worse is the prospect of a state economy headed south.
Sitting in traffic jams is enough to cause a bout of indigestion, too. Ask folks in some urbanized areas of Virginia who can't travel to and from work faster than 25 mph on freeways built for 65.
If a new transportation study identifies pressing needs, state legislators and the next governor must face up to the issue - just as Baliles and legislators did in 1986. The alternative, doing nothing, could put Virginia, its businesses and its people at a competitive disadvantage with other states and so apply the brakes on a rolling economy.
The work of the new study commission, headed by Norfolk Del. William Robinson Jr., is just beginning. It won't make recommendations until November, after the legislative and gubernatorial elections. But tax increases will be explored, along with bond issues and tolls. If more revenue is warranted, says Robinson, ``a little political courage'' may be called for.
Right he is. And if tax increases are necessary, let's hope policy-makers' tanks of courage don't show empty.
LENGTH: Short : 47 linesby CNB