I wonder if left wing political hack governor elect Terry McAuliffe will cancel the plates. Democrat governors in the Commonwealth are generally supported by the left wing media and they are prone to some screwball ideas that don't get much attention. The last democrat governor decided to close interstate rest stops so that you can remember to vote democrat when you really gotta take a piss.
Aren't the plates a source of revenue? He got elected when those plates were popular. I wonder if gas stations and gas station service areas saw an increase in revenue when those state rest areas shut down. I usually do the Epmoria 95 or 58 to 85 south routes when we travel, so I never noticed any bad effects from the shut downs. Here's the reason Kaine shut those rest areas down:
Transportation officials facing a $2.6 billion budget shortfall expect the closings to save about $9 million a year.
Meade asks officials to look again for other options to trim the transportation budget.
Transportation Department spokesman Jeff Caldwell says the agency has cut all its programs and $2 billion in road construction projects.
Isn't the above (cuts) what some people would refer to as a "fiscally conservative" action?
No.
A fiscally conservative action would have been to put aside transportation funds from transportation taxation and used it for ONLY road construction. In addition, a well thought out conservative budget would employ strategies that would build excess funds or materials in years of feast, as a hedge against those years when resources were low or economic times were lean.
But hey, you go on with your bad self.
What is the function of VDOT? Is it solely "road construction"?
"The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is responsible for building, maintaining and operating the state's roads, bridges and tunnels. And, through the Commonwealth Transportation Board, it provides funding for airports, seaports, rail and public transportation."
Here's what the conservative Governor in this state enacted:
"Mr. McDonnell, now in his final year as governor, has at last acknowledged a fundamental truth:
There is no way to maintain and improve the stateÂ’s crumbling transportation network, now set to run out of construction money by 2017, without higher taxes. That basic fact, in a state that has not raised any sustainable new funds for highways and roads in a quarter-century, has been rejected by the GOP for years. Now the governor has conceded the point."
"
He did so by calling for a 16 percent increase in the state sales tax on all goods, in place of the current per-gallon gasoline tax, which would be eliminated. By 2018 that would yield an additional $183 million annually in revenue due to rising prices and economic activity.
Add to that Mr. McDonnellÂ’s plan for an additional $127 million annually, mainly from higher vehicle registration fees, and there you have it: $310 million in new annual revenue proposed by a Republican governor."
"Mr. McDonnell would get part of the rest of the way to the
$1 billion level by raiding general-fund money —
for schools, higher education, mental health, public safety and recreation — and shifting some $283 million a year to transportation."
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell?s bold and paltry transportation plan - The Washington Post
Wow! That's a lot better than closing some rest areas (which would steer people to privately owned gas stations and service areas $$$) and cutting some road projects for a finite time.
Just trying to bring some things to
light and discuss a subject.
