Virginia is supposed to be a bastion of limited government. We like gun rights, fiscal responsibility, freedom from government intrusion and all the other classic hallmarks. Unfortunately, the way we paint ourselves and the way we behave reveal a disingenuous streak. Whether it’s trying to impose pass a majoritarian ban on individual marriage rights or a bigoted dictate that only married women may conceive through medical intervention, we’re more interested in a limited social environment than we are a limited legal environment.
When I was a kid, a study came out indicating that the Richmond business community was twenty years behind the times … and proud of it. That sums up the state more than any rhetoric we may offer. So it’s unsurprising that this is the proposed solution for Virginia’s transportation problems:
Some Republican leaders in the Virginia Senate will propose as early as Friday a series of tax and fee increases that could grow to about $1 billion a year for road and transit projects, once again setting the stage for a bitter clash over taxes with the House of Delegates.
Based on tax increases pushed through in the last budget by former Gov. Mark Warner (Democrat) and the General Assembly (Republican), Virginia now has a surplus of more than $1 billion. There’s a lesson there and I don’t like it.