Son of Frankenstein
That’s how James Atticus Bowden describes HB 6055, which is one of the remaining special transportation session bills in the Virginia House of Delegates. It is sponsored by Delegate Phil Hamilton (R-93). Briefly, HB 6505 would:
“Eliminates or replaces with state and local funds, fees and taxes, certain fees and taxes for Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads authorized pursuant to Chapter 896 of the Acts of Assembly of 2007 that are within the ambit of the Supreme Court of Virginia's decision on February 29, 2008, that they are unconstitutional. The bill replaces the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority by transferring its duties to other entities.”
That Supreme Court decision overturned HB 3202. We growled about that decision when it was announced.
Now Bowden writes at Bacon's Rebellion of how things will work if HB 6055 (the son of Frankenstein, i.e., of HB 3202) works its way through the General Assembly:
“These politicians will have hundreds of millions of dollars from year one to hire staff, rent offices or build them, hire transportation, more legal services, pay for meals, run executive off-sites, conduct ad campaigns to re-educate the public, put in the latest IT equipment, provide security, hire lobbyists, conduct environmental studies, and, above all, pay six figure salaries to retired and failed politician friends as ‘consultants’.
“Eventually, huge contracts for the actual engineering will be awarded without accountability oversight or checks and balances or adjudication for disputes.
“The people who will make millions to billions in government contracts can afford to give tens of thousands of dollars to the politicians, or their friends or family or some other middle man. But, the corruption will be done the genteel Virginia way. No bags of money will change hands. Just the right folks will get the contracts. And there will be a lot of consultants – just the right folks again.
“English-speaking People have built roads, ports, canals, bridges, ferries, railroads, airports, tunnels and subways in Virginia without Regional Governments for 400 years.
“The People voted against Regional Governments with taxing authority in 1998.
“The People rejected Regional Government, the projects and the taxes like HB 6055 in 2002 over 2:1. Polls indicate The People in Tidewater are against it about 3:1 today.”
Norm Leahy at Tertium Quids questions why so much money is being directed to mass transit, saying:
“The romance between conservatives and the great, black financial hole that is rail is just incredible. I would expect anti-tax politicians to know of these shortcomings.”
Bloggers at Right-wing Liberal report today that the Prince William County Board of Supervisors will consider a resolution opposing HB 6055. Other legislative bodies are encouraged to do the same. ACTA members, and other taxpayers, are strongly encouraged to contact their representatives in the Virginia General Assembly (contact information here). The 140 legislators in the General Assembly need to hear from you.