Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, February 21. Also, check out the video of Secretary of State Kerry’s speech at UVA yesterday.

*New study badly undermines GOP position on sequester

*Republicans run out the clock (“The GOP is losing the sequester argument but winning the time war.”)

*Poll: Obama approval highest since ’09 (“Fifty-five percent of Americans approve of Obama’s job performance, the highest since September 2009, according to the Bloomberg poll. Forty percent disapprove. Only 35 percent have a favorable view of the Republican party, and 55 percent have an unfavorable outlook.”)

*Thousands of defense workers might be forced into unpaid furloughs

*Roads funding compromise is reached, but the vote remains (“If you thought reaching an $880 million statewide road funding deal among 10 legislators was tough, wait until it comes to the full Assembly for approval.”)

*Virginia Lt. Gov. Bolling is free at last to decry his GOP as now ‘too extreme’ (Bolling: “I have enjoyed the last three months . . . more than I did the prior several years.”)

*Sen. Mark Warner on why the sequester cuts are ‘stupid’ (Being “stupid” doesn’t seem to stop things from getting passed in Washington, DC…or in Richmond!)

*Finally, deal near on transportation (“As compromises often do, the plan appears to have something to please – and something to irritate – nearly everyone.”)

*Despite Rumors, Wolf Plans Re-Election in NoVa (So…will 2016 be the year that Wolf finally retires and that Dems finally win the 10th CD?)

*Virginia’s transportation breakthrough

*Virginia House passes repeal of cohabitation ban (Check out the 25 Virginia delegates who want cohabitation to stay illegal in Virginia. Of course, they’re almost all Republicans.)

*Photo ID voter bill passes

*State set to take over failing schools

*Sen. Kaine continues defense tour in Salem, Charlottesville

*Colleagues help keep Va. legislator-doctors busy during brutal flu season

*In Virginia’s halls of power, a little comic relief

*Editorial: Bicyclists remain in danger (“Virginians still may tailgate bikers and open car doors in their path.”)

*Editorial: Woodrum’s legacy of respect (“The retired Roanoke delegate believed it was his duty to uphold the legislative process, even when he disagreed with the outcome.”)

*George Mason student and veteran wins tuition case, may set precedent

*In unconventional address, Fairfax chairman says redevelopment is the county’s future

*Arlington budget would raise property taxes by 3.2 cents

( – promoted by lowkell)

Virginia climate activists aren't letting up on Keystone XL after Sunday's hugely successful climate rally in DC. John Kerry came to the University of Virginia today to deliver his first official speech as the Secretary of State, and UVA students with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and Central Virginia 350 turned out to urge him to oppose the dirty oil pipeline.

Armed with a huge banner and chanting "No tar sands pipeline!" the group drew attention from passersby and Secretary Kerry himself, who walked by with a wave to acknowledge our message. During his speech, Kerry came out swinging on climate change. He made the economic case for climate action, tying rising seas and higher temperatures to greater costs from extreme weather and other climate impacts.

Secretary Kerry is right – we need to see climate action and we need to see it now. He and President Obama have a great opportunity, a great responsibility, to match their words with action. If built, the Keystone XL pipeline would be a fuse to one of the biggest carbon bombs in the world: the immense and dirty tar sands fields of Alberta, Canada. Climate scientist James Hansen has said that fully exploiting the tar sands would be "game over for the climate."

Virginians  know firsthand the impacts of our heating planet. The city of Norfolk is second only to New Orleans in vulnerability to sea level rise in the United States. Private insurers have already begun denying coverage to coastal residents, who see the rising tide lapping at their front doors. Farmers and vineyard owners around Charlottesville and across the state are threatened by hotter summers, increased likelihood of drought and shifting growing seasons.

For the sake of all those on the front lines of climate change, for the sake of our future, Secretary Kerry and President Obama must reject the Keystone XL pipeline and transition our country to clean, renewable energy like wind and solar power.

Today we reminded Secretary Kerry of his responsibility to take action on climate change and oppose the pipeline. Tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that and until we see the action the climate crisis demands, we'll keep emailing and calling and showing up to tell them: NO KEYSTONE XL. Add your voice today by emailing President Obama a  message urging him to reject the tar sands pipeline.

Cross-posted from the blog at ChesapeakeClimate.org

This transportation deal is atrocious enough, for the reasons I’ve outlined below (and that Paul Goldman has chimed in on regarding the “200-proof politics”), that it should be deep sixed unceremoniously no matter what. Having said that, at least if the revenues raised from the proposal were slated for worthwhile projects – ones that made sense in terms of Virginia’s future, ones that were cost effective, ones that helped make our lives and our environment better and not worse, ones that encouraged smart growth and not sprawl development – than perhaps there would be some redeeming value here.

But no. Not even close. Instead, believe it or not, the Virginia Department of Transportation is planning (see slide 5) to take $869 million in Garvee Bonds (see here for more on what those are all about) to spend on two wasteful, boondoggle, environmentally harmful projects — Route 460 (see here for why this thing is an utter waste of money) and the Coalfields Expressway (aka, “Mountaintop Removal Masquerading as a Highway Project”).

That $869 million represents over two-thirds of the $1.2 billion in Garvee bonds authorized by the General Assembly in 2011. This will reduce funds available for much higher priority, far more beneficial projects. Add in the Charlottesville Bypass ($243 million, with estimates up to $400 million; see here for a demolition of that “road to nowhere”) and the “unneeded and wasteful Outer Beltway” (estimated cost: $1 billion) to Route 460 ($1.4 billion) and the Coalfields Expressway ($2.8 billion), and total spending on wasteful, environmentally damaging, unnecessary projects ratchets up to a potential $5.5 billion. Clearly, the traffic numbers do not justify these highways, and the money is being diverted from much higher priority needs (e.g., our statewide maintenance backlog, needs in the heavily congested parts of the state’s metro areas, and local transportation needs statewide).

I checked with Coalition for Smarter Growth Executive Director Stewart Schwartz, and he responded:

Completely missing from the debate has been any review of how VDOT has been spending the $3 billion in borrowed money the General Assembly approved in 2011. Much of that is being squandered, as demonstrated by the billions being spent on four unnecessary rural highway projects. The proposed deal lacks any oversight of how VDOT will spend the additional statewide funds.

Great, huh? In sum, we get a regressive plan that takes money away from education and health care in order to fund wasteful, environmentally damaging, and unnecessary road projects. Are you sold on this monstrosity yet? Yippee!

(It’s kind of amusing that Paul Goldman has come to a similar conclusion as I have – oppose this transportation plan – but for almost completely different reasons. Of course, I’m looking at this much more from the perspective that it’s TERRIBLE public policy, while Paul’s doing “200-proof politics,” as he puts it. In short: Paul’s concluded this is bad on the politics, while I’ve concluded it’s bad on the policy merits. That’s two strikes against it right there, anyone care for a third? Heh. – promoted by lowkell)

by Paul Goldman

To say I am shocked at the details of the transportation plan agreed to by Senate and House conferees is an understatement. A couple of us who have done a lot of campaigns tried to game it out the past few days. I confess: Nothing like this ever came close to being on our radar screen.

Maybe Governor McDonnell is desperate enough for a deal to buy this one, after all he isn’t running in 2013. But my advice to Terry McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli: politically speaking, you would be wise to oppose it.

The original McDonnell transportation plan – basically swapping the gas tax for a sales tax – seemed to me to be a clever political play; not perfect, maybe not even all that good, but darn clever in an election year. There was risk in backing it in a gubernatorial election year. But with some tweaks to protect a loss in education and mental funding, and the very poor, I thought it was something Terry could embrace, maybe even Ken, although the K-Man might not be constitutionally able to give up his anti-tax image built up over many years.

As for Bill Bolling, he had been for it before he was against it. So, I figured he would simply be for it again. At least it was in the ball park; surely the elimination of the gas had a good political cover story so essential in an election year. That’s life, folks.

However, the governor’s original plan has now been discarded and replaced by the new Senate/House conferees plan. My reaction: Do these guys take Virginians to be total fools or just mostly so? This is a con job, an attempt to make it appear the gas tax has been eliminated.

 The governor’s argument – we need to go from a user fee based system to a different source of revenue to solve the transportation mess – is being followed. But as they say, the devil is in the details.

The gas tax hasn’t been eliminated: rather, it is being hidden, called something else. Instead of calling it a gas tax user fee, what we will now have a big new “wholesale tax on distributors” that will be passed on to consumers, and an even bigger “6% wholesale tax on diesel fuel,” which will be passed onto either consumers, or taken out of the hide of truck drivers and other workers in the transportation grid.

To make matters worse, the line in the sand drawn by the Senate on any shift in general

fund money from education and mental health and the like to transportation has been breached big time. The Senate said no more than $50 million a year could be switched. But this proposal does $200 million a year. $200 million; this is enough to fund scholarships for most of the A and B students in Virginia who are willing to stay in the state to go to school.

The Senate/House conferees have then added yet another new tax, raising the titling fee on motor vehicles by 33%, from 3% to 4%. Where did this come from? It is yet another new user fee, and a big one at that.

As for fixing the Internet Sales Tax discrimination, this plan says: if that doesn’t happen soon enough, then we will load on an additional 1.6% tax on the wholesale price of gas.

THE BOTTOM LINE POLITICAL POINT: Under this plan, it is very conceivable GAS TAXES, IN ANOTHER FORM, are going UP, NOT DOWN!

Or put another way: the governor, if he signs this bill, will in effect be REVERSING COURSE, embracing a user fee system is has said for weeks is broken, and cannot fix our transportation mess.

This is not speculation on my part. The governor’s original plan raised the sales tax to 5.8%. This Senate/House conferee plan raises it only to 5.3%, barely more than it is now. Yet both plans raise roughly the same amount of money in the aggregate. So, the math is self-evident: If you are getting far less from the sales tax in the Conferees plan, then the only way to make up the difference is by using the very type of user fee approach the governor has said for weeks now will not get the job done for Virginia.

The bottom line: The Senate/House proposal does raise a lot of new revenue for transportation, and to the extent we have a problem in that area, it might be the best one can get. The “least worst option” I have written about, in other words. But my column discusses 200-proof politics, not optimal policy. In some respects, the conferees’ plan ironically resembles the Senate conservative plan, which made no more sense before than it does now.

Politically, I think the conferees plan, with the right gubernatorial campaign, can be painted in the end as a Trojan Horse for simply a big tax increase for transportation: nothing more, nothing less, no bells, no whistles, no extra political points. Just basically your bread-and-butter package of higher taxes that will by November be seen for what it is.

If you count all the potential increases in taxes on gas that will be passed through to the consumer one way or another, I say this will raise the effective gas tax rate. Or quote the old line: A rose (in this case a thorn) is still a rose (or in this case a thorn) by any other name.

Since Cuccinelli and McAuliffe don’t have a vote: I say they should politely decline backing it. If they have the stomach for the fight, they should actively oppose it. At least we can insist on truth in packaging, right? If the governor wants to reverse course and tell Virginians he really is willing to take whatever he can get, then he needs to be honest about it. If not, then he needs to fight for his principles here.

Others more qualified can do the policy. As for the gubernatorial politics, I think the political play for Terry McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli is to oppose this proposal, not embrace it.  

From Progress Virginia:

ProgressVA Statement on House Passage of SB1256

Voting rights advocates call on Governor McDonnell to veto new voting restrictions

Richmond, VA – ProgressVA this afternoon condemned the House of Delegates passage of SB1256 and SB1077, new restrictions that will make it harder for hundreds of thousands of Virginians to vote. ProgressVA called on Governor McDonnell to veto new voting restrictions. Executive Director Anna Scholl released the following statement.

“Our elections should be free, fair, and accessible. Instead of addressing the long waits many voters faced at the polls last year, politicians are pushing new restrictions that will make it harder for hundreds of thousands of Virginians to vote. We ask Governor McDonnell to veto these new restrictions and protect Virginians' fundamental right to vote. Virginia changed the voting rules just last year and there's no evidence the new law isn't working. Changing the rules again will only confuse and discourage voters from participating in our democracy. We've never solved anything in this country with less democracy and we shouldn't start now.”

SB1256, sponsored by Senator Mark Obenshain, would institute a strict photo ID requirement for Virginia voters. According to the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, the bill would make it harder for hundreds of thousands of Virginians to vote while costing the Commonwealth between $7 and $22 million. SB1077, also sponsored by Senator Obenshain and which the House of Delegates passed this afternoon, would require the State Board of Elections to check registrants' citizenship against an incomplete federal database which will result in eligible voters being purged from the rolls.

Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, February 20. Also check out the video of Rep. Bobby Scott’s forum on sequestration in Newport News.

*Kathleen Parker: RINOs need to take back the Republican Party (“…what has become glaringly clear is that RINOs need to stop being so normal and grant their better angels a sabbatical. Forget taking back the country. Start by taking back your party. Do it for your country.”

*Congress’ leaders have failed U.S. (Replace the word “Congress” with “Congressional Republican” and you’ve got it right.)

*Area leaders demand that President Obama, Congress act to avoid deep federal cuts

*Poll: McAuliffe, Cuccinelli Tied in Va. Governor’s Race

*With session’s end, Bolling has scant time to raise cash, boost polling by decision deadline

*Bill Clinton to host fundraiser for McAuliffe

*A commission on voting issues is a good start

*U.S. signals agreement with Va. on Medicaid reforms

*Virginia lawmakers inch toward transportation funding deal (I don’t like the looks of this at all. For one thing, the absurd $100 fee singling out hybrid and other alternative fuel vehicles is back. For another, why on earth would we lower the gas tax, when the #1 problem facing humanity, by far, is climate change cause by fossil fuel combustion? It’s nuts.)

*As sequester nears Kaine visits shipyard

*Schapiro: McDonnell legacy limited by term limit

*Bill to allow smoking bans on public beaches is snuffed out

*Crackdown on texting while driving heads to governor

*Kerry makes foreign policy speech today at U.Va.

*Former congressman backs Chopra for LG

*Lawmakers propose fewer signatures for access to presidential ballot in Va. (“Bill reduces required signatures from 10,000 to 5,000 to qualify.”)

*Va. Assembly approves ban on welfare benefits to buy booze, tattoos (That’s fine, as long as they also ban such expenditures for recipients of corporate welfare or welfare for rich people.)

*In General Assembly, no love for cyclists (Change “In General Assembly” to “Among General Assembly Republicans” and you’ve got it right.)

*Goodlatte’s willing to talk sequestration alternatives (Yeah, as long as it’s “my way or the highway,” which means “not one penny in new revenues, all cuts.” No thanks.)

*Former Del. Chip Woodrum dies

*House passes bill to inform patients about Lyme disease testing

*Gun owners get discount at Va. Beach pizza shop

*Fairfax County board, workers push back on proposed pay plan

*The Murder Charges Against Oscar Pistorius And The Financial Interests Of The Olympics