In the world according to Virginia Attorney General Ken
Cuccinelli, any major legislation that smells of bipartisanship must in and of
itself be erroneous. After a transportation
deal with support across all political aisles was reached on Wednesday by
negotiators in the Virginia House and Senate, Cuccinelli idealogued against its
purported components.
Cuccinelli said, “If reports are correct, this new bill
contemplates a massive tax increase. In these tough economic times, I do not
believe Virginia’s middle class families can afford massive tax increases…”[1]
What a “massive tax increase” is in the world of Ken Cuccinelli is open to
speculation.
What isn’t open for speculation is Cuccinelli’s every public
statement, from this moment until the final vote is cast for Virginia’s next
governor, will be a calculated effort to win over the supporters that he’ll
need to sit in the Executive Mansion next year.
But if the new taxes coming out of the new transportation
bill are true, then Cuccinelli may have a firm ground to stand on, for once.
According to one source, the deal would ‘create’ close to $800 million a year
once fully transitioned in to address the commonwealth’s new construction and
roads maintenance needs. The revenue generated would come from tax increases on
wholesale gasoline (don’t have a problem), diesel fuel (don’t have a problem)
as well as increases in the state sales tax (have a problem), motor vehicle
titling tax, and audaciously, hybrid vehicle registration fees (I can see
hybrid vehicle sales in Virginia already dipping).
Raising taxes on things like gasoline that will go towards
repairing roads and new transportation projects makes sense: if so many
Virginians didn’t drive, many of these transportation projects wouldn’t be
necessary in the first place. Thus the gas taxes serve as a disincentive to
drive.
But raising Virginia’s sales tax? Raising vehicle
registration fees on vehicles which Virginia should be
promoting (i.e., hybrid
vehicles)? How do these two schemes make any sense in terms of addressing
Virginia’s transportation dilemmas?
So for once in a long time, Cuccinelli and I may agree on an
issue, albeit for fundamentally different reasons. The real test for Cuccinelli
will be to see how much brain matter he can put behind viable transportation ideas
of his own.
Up till now, Cuccinelli has been little more than a
naysayer, a reading of the 10 Commandments, “Thou shalt…”[2]
Virginia needs vision, not condemnation. It needs leadership, not division. As
such, Cuccinelli would be a terrible pick for governor!
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