The governor's transportation plan about to drop?

According to the official schedule from the executive mansion, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will be kicking off a transportation town hall meeting tour next Tuesday in Woodbridge.

That means that Kaine pretty much has to trot out his plan for upgrading the state's overworked tranportation network in the next few days. If Kaine really wants feedback for his plan he's going to need it to get some play in the newspapers and on TV over the weekend, that way he can start digging into public opinion starting next week.

Kaine said all along that he wants to patch the whole in the statewide maintenance fund, and also regional solutions in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. During recent meetings, Kaine and other administration folks have been highlighting where Virginia stands compared to other states on gasoline taxes, sales taxes and automobile sales taxes.

The smart money says he's raising some combination of those levies, but how soon, and for what and in what way remains to be seen. Last year's plan was cobbled together, so it would be a smart play to make sure this year's substitute is much easier to digest, but when you're talking about tax increases during tough times it's usually a hard sell.

I guess we'll have to just wait and see.

Peninsula residents who want to give Kaine feedback should plan to be in Hampton at the Hampton Roads Convention Center next Thursday - May 15 - from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Comments

[Phillip Paul]

Any proposal that doesn't directly address the mismanagement, fraud, corruption and waste in VDOT is dead on arrival! The problem isn't a lack of money, the problem is an out of control VDOT!

Am I the only one that finds it ironic that VDOT would be doing this on "Mothers Day"????

If ever there was a bigger group of "mothers" in the Commonwealth of Virginia, it would have to be VDOT.

An ENORMOUS and HUGE waste of the taxpayers money.

And before all you Chicken Little "the sky if falling" types post the inane "but what if we had a big hurricane" nonsense, the fact that VDOT can't do the job its supposed to do, build and maintain roads, why would you think they could do an additional job of "emergency evacuation"?????

This is the most mismanaged, disorganized, screwed up mess in the country, much less Virginia and now they're in charge of "Emergency Evacuation"????

More idiocy from Richmond!

We need new leadership in Virginia. Time to throw the old bums and liars out and replace them with new bums and liars.

Anyone trusting VDOT to 'evacuate" them in an emergency, better make sure their will is done and in a safe place because you are DEAD MEAT!