No more Mr. Nice Governor.
Assembly Anonymous heard it over and over. “He’s too conciliatory and they’re taking advantage of it.” “They,” of course, refers to the House Republicans’ Gotcha Team.
With Gov. Tim Kaine handing over his “Nice Guy” duties to Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer, Homer maintained remarkable and exemplary cool under a scorching grilling at last Wednesday’s Special Transportation House Rules Committee meeting. About all it lacked was water boarding.
Nevertheless, Homer followed the Mr. Nice Guy Governor model all the way.
Homer isn’t always noted for maintaining his cool, but he and Delegate Ward Armstrong (D-Martinsville), chief patron of the Governor’s transportation package, HB6026, never frayed.
“This is great theater,” an audience observer murmured as the rhetoric heated up.
The Gotcha Team of Delegates Kirk Cox, Clarke Hogan, Steve Landes and Morgan Griffith lit into Homer and Armstrong as they presented Kaine’s transportation bill.
The scene was reminiscent of ‘The King and I’ when Deborah Kerr sings what she would LIKE to say to the King of Siam, Yul Brenner.
Toads! Toads! All of your people are toads!
Yes, Your Majesty;
No, Your Majesty.
Tell us how low to go, Your Majesty.
In the Rules Committee meeting, Homer played the part of the toad. The Gotcha Team played the King of Siam.
Cox: “Tell me about the logic of the car tax.”
Hogan: “Are you suggesting that the cost of goods has no effect on purchases?”
Hogan: Car sales and house sales, there will be no effect of the Governor’s bill?
As legislators, Landes said, “We are pledged to ‘do no harm’… Don’t you think these taxes will do harm?”
Landes continued: “How do we know that what you say will happen will?”
And: “Don’t you think it makes more sense to find out what the costs actually are?”
Then Landes bore in on VDOT. “We all know VDOT has challenges. The last two administrations haven’t been that helpful … If people don’t want their taxes increased then we have responsibility not to raise taxes.”
(Armstrong’s reply: “Does anyone take any joy in raising taxes? No!”)
That prompted Del. John O’Bannon (R-Henrico) to ask Homer how much the state pays for its stoplights. He wondered why Henrico can install stoplights for less than the state. This provided a brief interlude, before the Gotcha Team interrogation continued.
Hogan: Last year we raised $500 million statewide. How are we still $250-$300 million behind if that didn’t do any good? “I guess I should get my money back.”
Homer explained that problems with maintenance costs usurped transportation funds.
Cox: “Then why didn’t you propose raising the gas tax?” And later, from Cox: “We’ll be dealing with the gas tax bill. Will the governor sign a gas tax bill?”
Armstrong, clearly tired of playing the “Yes, your Majesty” part, responded: “VDOT has been audited every year for the last eight years. If we want to see how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, go ahead. You can do all the audits you want to and it’s not going make any more money.”
Griffith, the Republican majority leader from Salem said, fresh thinking is needed, and he hasn’t seen any. As an example, he heard a lady call in to WRVA radio to suggest that the state start selling advertising. The state could sell ads on bridges, the caller suggested.
“Why aren’t we looking at other ideas?” Griffith asked. He said he’d never thought about the state selling advertising with signs on bridges, for instance.
Grinning, he said, “I can see one now, ‘Griffith for Delegate.’”
Hogan: “We keep hearing what Armstrong and Pierce say about the grantor’s tax (paid by sellers of homes). I want to hear what the people from those industries say.”
Wow! Big surprises were in store here!
The car dealers don’t want car sales to be taxed. The homebuilders don’t want home sales to be taxed. The realtors don’t want home sales to be taxed either. And the retail merchants don’t want a higher sales tax.
The “Gotcha Team” gleamed. See there? No one wants to be taxed.
A Fairfax Chamber lobbyist, however, liked the idea of the state’s selling signs on bridges. He had a suggestion for the first sign:
“This traffic jam brought to you by Delegate Morgan Griffith.”
Assembly Anonymous agrees with Del. Griffith. Selling advertising on state property just might be the answer to paying for transportation.
Why should we leave solutions up to the legislators? They’ve been working on it for four years with no luck. That WRVA caller lady has a hot idea.
Here’s a starter:
Sign on a state prison: “We’ll leave the electricity on for you!”
AA welcomes any ad suggestions to kick off the Commonwealth’s possible entry into the advertising business! Send your ideas to the “Comments” section.
Note to Attorney General McDonnell: You are absolutely right, AA misspoke. Angry drivers didn’t kill the rest of the bill (HB3202). But they sure took care of the part that counted on fat fines from bad drivers to pay for roads. As for your comments about varieties of audits, come on, an audit is an audit and, as Del. Armstrong said, yet one more won’t produce any miracles, just more delay. But AA was delighted to hear from you and urges caution on those trouser changes in the Hampton Roads tunnel!