( – promoted by lowkell)

by Paul Goldman

“Call me Goldy.” The Tale of McDonnell’s Black Whale – the Captain Ahab like obsession with pursuing more and more ways to spend more and more money on transportation in the mistaken belief it will leave you with some great legacy – would have been fascinating to any political Herman Melville. The Governor’s idea, metaphorically, is to use all that whale oil in the black asphalt paving that will be required (hence the Black Whale, not that I was making some Django Unchained thing).

But the real story of the upcoming 2013 General Assembly Session is not one but three issues triangulating Virginia governance right now, at the heart of the real meat of the upcoming Governor’s race as well: Transportation, Medicaid and Education.

To be sure, the optics of the 2013 GA Session and the Governor’s race could very well be dominated by other issues as has often been the case over the years: abortion rights, gun rights, taxes, racial issues, religious issues, voting rights, what have been labeled by some political analysts as the “wedge issues.” They are all important, indeed gun rights may be the sleeper issue of 2013 right now for Virginia politics given what may or may not come out of the Biden Commission discussion of the matter in terms of White House legislative proposals. “Gun control” has not been a real issue in a VA Governor’s race since 1993. It could be this year. Big time.

BUT these “wedge issues”, while important both as a general matter in terms of state policies on significant concerns and as an issue of particular concern to a key voting bloc, ARE STILL SECONDARY TO THE BIG THREE in terms of fundamental shaping of state government:  Roads, Medicaid, Education. These are the three Moby Dicks bearing down on the Ship of State.

Governor McDonnell started out by making his first year about keeping the big money campaign promise: the near $1 Billion in road money he claimed could be reaped by privatizing the state’s ABC operations. It proved a complete fisherman’s tale.

Since then, the McDonnell Administration has been a non-stop Willie Wonka factory of chocolate covered transportation spending proposals, every form of toll and fee and borrowing and borrowing  known to Virginia governance. Except for an effort to sell the silverware dating back to the 1700’s over at the Governor’s Mansion, Mr. McDonnell has been going about fixing transportation – and I mean this respectfully – ass backwards.

McDonnell sees the issue as MORE MONEY.

BUT THIS IS A DERIVATIVE MATTER.

Right now in Virginia, the transportation issue is more basic: Namely, do we need to change from the 1920’s philosophy of funding transportation with USER fees?

In many respects, we already have: In 1986, Governor Baliles got the General Assembly to add a half-cent to the sales tax to exclusively fund transportation projects. This has changed the mix along with improved MPG’s among other things. Terry MAC and the electric car gurus, along with cars running on natural gas and hopefully more public transit, will further change the revenue generating mix.

But as a legacy matter, Baliles’ folks never pitched his vision as a new philosophy, only a new transportation levy using a sales tax, first in the nation.

Big mistake really. This is why he got no enduring credit from the public and has never run again for higher office.

Yet, to give him his due, he was, in effect, saying this: The user fee concept – gas taxes where seen as a user fee – is not going to be enough in the future to fund the state’s transportation grid.

I am not sure he was right then, or even now: But I do think he was being very perceptive as regards the fundamental issue on transportation in the coming years. There is a vision there. He never got his due. He should have.

Philosophically, the gas tax became the main source of road money in the 1920’s when Harry Byrd got the state, in a referendum, to reject higher debt for higher gas taxes so we could go on a pay as you go basis for the most part. Less debt, higher taxes.

It defied the politics of the age, or so the experts thought. But look around America at the time: Byrd had reason to know he could win the debate. Other states had gone the same route.

Now comes 2013.

THE REAL TRANSPORTATION issue right now is the following: Is the User Fee approach still the one we want, indeed is it still viable? Or was Baliles ahead of his time in that regard?

I don’t know: but it is the KEY TO NOT ONLY TRANSPORTATION. Why? Because the sales tax was created to FUND EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA, at least for the most part. Making the sales tax NOW also pay for transportation funding IN THE FUTURE fundamentally impacts education funding as well.

Already, we have a proposal to scrap the gas tax and go to fully funding transportation with the sales tax. That isn’t going to fly: but at least it does raise the basic philosophical issue.

THE FAILURE TO FIRST ENGAGE THE STATE IN THIS PHILOSPHICAL DEBATE IS GOVERNOR MCDONNELL’S BIG TRANSPORTATION MISTAKE.

McDonnell sees the transportation issue as trying to find more and more billions by whatever new borrowing, new toll, new general fund money redistribution, he can come up with. LIKE CAPTAIN AHAB, he is obsessed with with pursuing something out of King Lear.

Instead, what McDonnell should do, what will be of the most benefit and give him a real legacy, is to engage the state the way Harry Byrd did, but Baliles did not: Namely, how do we, as Virginians, want to solve our transportation problems?

This is key because It plays into the other two Moby Dicks headed at us: the problems in EDUCATION and the GROWING COST OF MEDICAID.

Let’s understand the politics. The business community’s first priority is transportation. McDonnell knows this, he wants their backing when he runs again. Medicaid is a huge issue for Democrats: it goes to the heart of the party’s philosophy, it is important to the President indeed key to Obamacare in many respects. However, the Medicaid issue has been made hugely more complicated by part of Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert’s opinion upholding Obamacare. He changed the game big time when he said Uncle Sam couldn’t punish states that rejected the President’s new Medicaid proposals.

Last, but actually first to the future of the state and nation is Education. Contrary to what our politicians have been saying, we are in serious need of a real reformer as Governor. Our school facilities are far worse off than our roads: and unless they get upgraded, our kids can not compete with the Chinese and others, it is that simple. This is something Bush and Obama, Reagan and Clinton all agreed with. ALL.

But we have flunked badly there, the average school building in Virginia and America almost old enough to qualify as an historic structure under state and federal law!! You can not get a 21st century education in a school building built in the 1960’s.

Then comes all the focus in years past on testing and more testing and more testing and more …testing: it ain’t working. The whole SOL regime needs reforming. Then comes the huge increase in administrative costs, often hidden by clever accounting tricks. Take Richmond for instance. Watch the coming battle over the school budget in my city.

It is a metaphor for what is driving down the middle class and blocking the poor from getting out of poverty.

But while fixing the education situation is not just about money – in some respects it doesn’t require any new money at all – in the long run, the state is going to have to figure out ways to provide greater resources to localities in this area and perhaps directly to students as I see it.

THERE THEY ARE: The Big Three drivers of spending at the state level not counting all the mandatory and other stuff paid for out of general or special funds. Roads, Medicaid and Education have a lot of discretion over time. They are competing right now for the same dollar.  

With all due respect to Governor McDonnell – who has worked with Warner and Kaine and Cantor in trying to fix the school facility issue with a novel legislative proposal at the federal level – he is being penny wise and pound foolish with his Captain Ahab obsession.

RATHER, HE NEEDS TO LEAD A PUBLIC DISCUSSION SO THE PEOPLE CAN WEIGH ON THE MATTER.

Harry Byrd did it: and the people defied the experts by choosing higher user fees tied to transportation usage.

Baliles did not trust the people: he ran against raising taxes, and then reversed himself overnight as opposed to going to the people. If he had, he might be in the U.S. Senate today.

Baliles had vision, but not enough faith in the public.

MY PROPOSAL: Roads, Medicaid and Education are huge policy questions for state politicians to decide, not federal judges or even Medicaid.

Yes, the federal government plays a big role here, we have a federal gas tax, Medicaid is a federal/state partnership, and Education too has federal money component. But by and large, these are issues for the state to decide, for Virginia as a society to decide.

My own preference, given the state of our politics today, is to do what proved successful for several generations: use a statewide referendum to give the public a chance to gridlock on transportation. We have not done this for nearly a century.

But you say: The public may say NO to even the smallest fix. Sure, that is possible. By law, any referendum is advisory and moreover, how would be any worse off with a referendum, regardless of the results?

To me, it is all upside. Governor McDonnell could leave the debate to Cuccinelli and McAuliffe. Or McDonnell can help the next Governor out by taking the leadership role today.

In my view, USER FEES must play a role in any fundamental solution. Scraping them makes no sense. But at the same time, the equation did change in 1986. So we need to harmonize the situation in such a way that works for education and Medicaid as well.

Unless Governor McDonnell sees this, he will just be playing Captain Ahab for the rest of his tenure in office.  

Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, January 6.

*White House considers broad gun-control plan (Here’s an idea: require anyone owning a gun to carry liability insurance. That would be fascinating…)

*Split emerges among Republicans over strategy toward upcoming debt ceiling

*Conservatives gone wild (“… it is the opposite of ‘conservative’ to embrace chaos instead of order. It is the opposite of ‘conservative’ to embrace crisis rather than accept unpleasant realities.”)

*Conservatives Open New Congress With Unconstitutional Bill To End Birthright Citizenship (Speaking of “the opposite of ‘conservatism'”)

*12 most despicable things Fox News did in 2012 (“From producing its own anti-Obama video to spinning furiously on unemployment, the network had a banner year”)

*Terry McAuliffe looks to revamp image in political comeback

*Virginians shoulder billions each year in secret tax breaks (Completely f***ed up system, in which “the top 1 percent of state households – those making more than $529,000 a year – pay 5 percent of their income in state and local taxes, according to a recent analysis by the Washington-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The poorest one-fifth – those making less than $19,000 – pay nearly 9 percent.”)

*More independent Bolling returns to role as tiebreaker in Virginia Senate (It will be interesting to see if he’s really more independent.)

*Anti-death-penalty group rallies near Cuccinelli

*Roads, schools among top items on assembly list

*Next stop in Va. uranium debate: Statehouse

*Ruling not expected to hurt bay cleanup plans (Still, the ruling was totally wrong, as were Kookinelli and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors…)

*Schapiro: Nothing like an old-fashioned fight with trial lawyers

*Wait for study on transportation

*Whale sightings spike in waters off Virginia Beach coast

*26 Va. localities get failing grade on budget access

*NHL, union reach tentative agreement to end lockout

*Misery of attending a Redskins game

The following list of crazy, extreme, and/or stupid proposed 2013 Virginia legislation, pretty much all of which is by Teapublicans, is not intended to be complete. Also, in coming days, I’m sure we’ll see many more pieces of bad legislation submitted. If you see anything interesting, please post it in the comments section here, or start your own diary. Thanks.

P.S. I haven’t added any commentary, because I think the craziness and stupidity of these bills stand for themselves.

Del. “Sideshow” Bob Marshall (R-13)

School boards; employee firearms training. (“Requires every school board in the Commonwealth to designate at least one qualified person for every school in the district who, upon application with the school board, may carry a concealed handgun on school property.”)

Health insurance; contraception coverage. (“Provides that no individual or group accident and sickness insurance policy, individual or group accident or sickness subscription contract, or health care plan for health care services shall provide coverage for contraception methods, sterilization procedures, abortifacient drugs or devices unless the subscriber or enrollee in the policy, contract, or plan requests such coverage.”)

Income tax. (“Deconforms Virginia income tax laws from two provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that otherwise would increase the state income tax.”)

Study; joint subcommittee to study alternative medium of commerce or currency; report. (“Establishes a joint subcommittee to study whether the Commonwealth should adopt an alternate medium of commerce or currency to serve as an alternative to the currency distributed by the Federal Reserve System in the event of a major breakdown of the Federal Reserve System.”)

Del. Richard Bell (R-20) and Sen. Richard Black (R-13)

Constitutional amendment (first resolution); right to work. (“Provides that any agreement or combination between any employer and any labor union or labor organization whereby persons not members of such union or organization are denied the right to work for the employer…”)

Del. Mark Cole (R-88) and Sen. Richard Black (R-13)

Elections; polling place procedures; voter identification requirements. (“Removes several items from the list of acceptable identification documents that a voter must present when voting at the polls on election day: a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, or paycheck that shows the name and address of the voter.”)

Del. James LeMunyon (R-67)

United States Constitution; amendment. (“Makes application to the United States Congress to call an amendment convention for the purpose of proposing a constitutional amendment that requires a balanced federal budget.”)

Del. Rick Morris (R-64)

Application of foreign law in Virginia courts; domestic relations. (“Provides that if a court, arbitrator, administrative agency, or other adjudicative or enforcement authority bases its decision in a domestic relations matter on foreign law, and such decision violates a person’s rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and Constitution of Virginia, then such decision will be void as violative of the public policy of the Commonwealth.”)

Sen. Charles Carrico (R-40)

Substance abuse screening and assessment of public assistance applicants and recipients. (“Requires local departments of social services to screen each Virginia Initiative for Employment Not Welfare (VIEW) program participant to determine whether probable cause exists to believe the participant is engaged in the use of illegal substances.”)

Electoral College. (“Provides that the Commonwealth’s electoral votes shall be allocated by congressional district.”)

Constitutional amendment (first resolution); freedom of speech. (“Expands the freedom of speech provisions of the Constitution of Virginia to permit prayer and the recognition of religious beliefs, heritage, and traditions on public property, including public school property.”) {Also, add Sen. William Stanley (R-20) on this one}

Sen. Thomas Garrett (R-22)

Nonpublic school students; participation in interscholastic programs. (“Prohibits public schools from joining an organization governing interscholastic programs that does not deem eligible for participation a student who (i) is receiving home instruction…”)

Funding for certain abortions. (“Repeals the section authorizing the Board of Health to fund abortions for women who meet the financial eligibility criteria of the State Plan for Medical Assistance in cases in which a physician certifies that he believes that the fetus would be born with a gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity or mental deficiency.”)

Sen. Stephen Martin (R-11)

Elimination of the corporate income tax. (“Eliminates the corporate income tax for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2014, by setting the rate of the tax at zero percent.”)

Sen. Jeffrey McWaters (R-8)

Assignment of general fund balance; Transportation Trust Fund. (“Increases from 67 percent to 75 percent the portion of the general fund surplus remaining at the end of each fiscal year that is deposited into the Transportation Trust Fund.”)

Sen. Bryce Reeves (R-17)

Rights of parents. (“Provides that parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children and such right shall not be infringed by the government unless the governmental interest as applied to the parents is of the highest order and not otherwise served.”)

Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, January 5. Also, check out President Obama’s weekly address, in which he “talks about the bipartisan agreement that Congress reached this week which prevented a middle-class tax hike, congratulates the newly sworn-in members of Congress, and looks forward to working with the new Congress in the new year to continue to grow our economy and shrink our deficits in a balanced way.”

*Job creation steady in December, unemployment at 7.8%

*White House sees promise in revisiting elements of ‘grand bargain’ on taxes, spending

*The GOP’s stacked deck (“House majority doesn’t represent the voters’ will.”)

*Hagel likely to be nominated for Defense Secretary next week (I continue to find it amazing that President Obama can’t find a qualified Democrat for this job, even though there are plenty of them. Why?)

*Virginia Abortion, Contraception Bills Proposed In New Legislative Session

*PHOTOS: Virginian Tim Kaine Sworn In to U.S. Senate

*Jim Webb ‘Steps Out’ Of U.S. Senate

*Kaine Hopes New Senators Bring Bipartisanship To Congress

*McDonnell seeks elusive fix for Virginia roads

*Virginia faces possible recession

*What Virginians should know about Teach For America

*Tow truck complaints shifted to Va. AG’s office

*Va localities eligible for federal Sandy aid grows

*Sen. Mike Crapo pleads guilty to drunken driving

*Virginia Beach mayor sets Monday deadline on arena deal

*House District #29 (NLS’ series on all the Virginia House of Delegates districts continues. Great stuff!)

*PM Update: A chilly weekend; slight chance early Sunday light snow or rain

(UPDATE: I’m hearing that the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools (SACS), which recently put UVA on “warning,” is itself under investigation by the US Department of Education… – promoted by lowkell)

In this morning’s news roundup, I linked to the Virginia Pilot article on University of Virginia Rector Helen Dragas, and specifically her “tough road to confirmation in the General Assembly after spearheading a controversial effort last June to oust U.Va. President Teresa Sullivan.” I saw that Sen. Ralph Northam, who is running for the Democratic nomination for Virginia LG, was quoted in the story, sounding somewhat “sympathetic” (the article’s adjective) to Dragas. I wanted to check with Northam’s people, as well as with the other Democratic LG candidate, Aneesh Chopra, to find out more.

I first spoke with Aneesh Chopra’s campaign. Their position is basically that, knowing what he knows now, he would not support Dragas’ reappointment to the UVA Board of Visitors. Of course, they emphasized to me, that if Chopra was in a position to vote on this, he’d want to sit down with Dragas and hear her side of the story. He’d also want the entire process to be conducted with openness and transparency, both of which his campaign emphasized are very important to him.

As for Sen. Northam, his campaign told me that more than anything, he wants a fair, transparent process. They noted that a LACK of transparency was a big part of the reason the situation turned into the problem that it did. Thus, Sen. Northam believes there should be a full, fair public hearing on this issue before the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee. Northam also wants to speak with Dragas again (he’s spoken with her previously but has additional questions/concerns),  as well as to talk to UVA President Sullivan and to other members of the UVA Board of Visitors, so he can get the full story. Having said that, Sen. Northam clearly believes that Dragas made some “grave mistakes,” and he has “a lot of reservations” about her reappointment. He’s heard a tremendous amount from constituents on this issue, and people clearly feel VERY strongly about this subject. In the end, Sen. Northam will listen to his constituents, as well as to the facts, and then make a decision.

My position? I agree that Dragas should receive a fair, open hearing. I agree that all facts that should be heard. But having said all that, I find it difficult to imagine what facts could possibly emerge that would outweigh the damage – both actual and perceived – that’s already been inflicted due in large measure to Dragas’ ham-handed, arrogant, foolish, irresponsible behavior. Thus, barring some astounding revelations, I would strongly support Dragas’ reappointment to the UVA Board of Visitors being REJECTED by the General Assembly.  

Gotta love this sorry excuse for a congressman and extreme/extremist hypocrite (click on image to “embiggen” and you’ll see that Bob Goodlatte was one of just a handful of congresscritters voting no earlier today on Hurricane Sandy relief).

This is the same guy, by the way, who after Tropical Storm Lee in 2011, signed a letter to President Obama “supporting Gov. Bob McDonnell’s request for federal disaster aid for damage caused by Tropical Storm Lee Sept. 8 and 9 in Fairfax and Prince William counties.” But when it comes to people in other states who are hurting from a natural disaster, BADlatte’s attitude is for them to take a long walk off a short (or in this case, destroyed or damaged) pier. What a horrible – nasty, mean, hypocritical, you name it – human being.

P.S. Also see here for BADlatte complaining that FEMA denied Gov. McDonnell’s request for federal disaster assistance resulting from tornadoes in 2011.