Opportunity for Virginia Dems

If Virginia Democrats can’t take advantage of the preposterous propaganda coming from Republicans on transportation issues, they don’t deserve to win back more seats in the Assembly come November. I hope the Dems party chair Kerry Donley has assigned someone at the Dems HQ in Richmond to clip every GOP reference to fixing our transportation problems without tax increases. Invariably such articles have someone, often from the business community, saying, essentially, they’ve got their heads in the sand.

Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore professed support yesterday for many of the expensive transportation upgrades dear to Northern Virginia business leaders. But he flatly rejected tax increases to pay for them.

Speaking to the Virginia Public Affairs Group of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, Kilgore embraced a proposed rail line to Dulles International Airport, widening Interstate 66 and building a new bridge spanning the Potomac River.

But Kilgore, the Republican Party's likely gubernatorial candidate this year, said the billions of dollars those and other transportation projects would cost should not come from tax increases.

Rather, he said, the state can meet its pressing transportation needs by relying on partnerships with private businesses and tax revenue captured from a growing economy.

…Robert T. Grow, the Board of Trade's director of government relations, said he welcomed Kilgore's acknowledgement that more money is needed for transportation. But he said a no-tax pledge is shortsighted.

"The lower the taxes the better, that's the way we feel," he said. "The public-private partnerships are great, but the numbers have to work. There are many projects that will require government funding. You have to be realistic."

The challenge for the business community is to put their money where their mouth is. Some have: the Hazels, the Leadership for Virginia PAC, Mike Anziolotti of the Virginia Business Council and others have financially supported Democrats running against flat-earthers. But it will take a brave effort for some business groups to finance challengers to incumbents either at the primary level and even more so in November when the choice will be a no-tax Republican or (Omigod) a Democrat.