(Big) Brother Can You Spare a Dime?
On Thursday 10 July 08, I was in Richmond representing the Town on Virginia Municipal League's (VML) Transportation Policy Steering Committee and Transportation Policy Committee. Our charge was to craft policy statements for locality perpectives on transportation priorites for roads, bridges, rail, public transportation, etc. for the upcoming Fiscal Year. Simply put, what we ended up saying with a bunch of fancy words was, SHOW US THE MONEY. (!) Because Virginia is a Dillon Rule State, local governments are extremely limited in their options to raise revenue for necessary public improvements. Ttransportation funding is historically a role that state government has shouldered. Opinion: If the General Assembly would like localities to accept more responsibility for their trasnsportation future, then this devolution needs to be funded.
In the wee hours of the morning on Thursday, for the 22nd straight year, the General Assembly fizzled out on a plan for adequate, sustainable, dedicated non-general funds to support Virginia's transportation network. This, in addition to the repeal of the wildly unpopular 'Abusive Driver Fees' from last year's session, means that Christiansburg will receive about 44% less transportation funding in FY 08-09 for critical new capital projects like US Route 114 than we did in the current FY. My opinion is that this lack of vision borders on the absurd.
Additionally, we heard an impressive presentation from Fiscal Analytics, Ltd. on the 2008-2010 Budget Outlook for Virginia. Foregoing the painstaking detail, the thrust was that US economy is weaker than was expected when State revenue forecast was prepared, and falling stock prices further reduce capital gains tax revenues. Bottom Line: It's entirely possible, and perhaps even likely, that additional budget reductions on the order of $2.5B may be necessary over three years, including broader local aid cuts. In FY09, for instance, the General Assembly is cutting $238M from local aid and the mechanism is now in place for further cuts in the future.
The resonating disappointment from all this is that for the next two years, the Town will be looking elsewhere for ways to meet present levels of service in some areas, especially with programs that depend on annual state funding commitments, transportation and otherwise. Of course this won't be impossible, but it does mean that we will have to be more resourceful, be alert for unique funding and/or promotional opportunities, and be willing to try new things if we are going to achieve our goals and avoid raising taxes. An excellent example of this way of thinking at our last meeting was Police Chief Mark Sisson's report dated 20 June 08 that emphasized several measures our PD was implementing to reduce fuel consumption and vehicle maintenance costs. I was in the Marketplace area yesterday and saw two of our officers on bike patrol, just as the chief mentioned. Just like at home, if everyone does their part hardships can actually bring the community closer together. This will be the case if we each adopt a servant's attitude and look for ways to pitch in.
Brad Stipes
As a follow-up to this discussion, I'm including two articles from today's Roanoke Times that provide further details about both the upcoming State Budget crisis as well as an EXCELLENT position written by State Senator John Edwards (D-Roanoke) on the Transportation funding fizzle:
1) State Budget Shortfall - http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/169816
2) Senator John Edwards Op-Ed - http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/169784
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Reader Comments (3)
What a shame we can't take the state sales tax, give 1% to county, 2% to locality it was collected in, and balance to the state -- or someother means of offsetting state reduction in service and funding of transportation, education, judicial and public safety services. Shifting the expense burden from state to localities doesn't equate to "no new taxes" -- simply shifts responsibility for who ultimately must make these hard decisions to cover basic services. If this continues, the entire Dillon principle needs to be rejected and replaced. Thanks for the extra hours, but I'm afraid it's fallen on deaf ears.
The cynic in me wonders how much money cut to us went to northern Virginia, but I digress.
Is there grant money the Town can look into? Or is there something out there provided by the private sector in which Christiansburg could be a test market?
The truth is that our Commonwealth is set up to redistribute many revenues, including transportation, based on formulas with a geopraphic emphasis. What this means is that urbanized areas like Northern Virginia, Richmond and Va. Beach are often "donor" regions that actually get back less transportation revenues than are generated in their region. More rural areas like ours tend to get a larger return of state $$ than are generated here. In other words, as far as getting our share of the state pie goes we actually fare pretty well on many things. The problem is that the pie itself is FAR too small, it's shrinking very quickly, and the state is increasingly shifting baking responsibilities to local government - without providing ingredients or even a way to buy ingredients.