The Washington Post reports this morning that Gov. Tim Kaine …  will force the issue by calling a special session or extending the current one, which is scheduled to end March 11.”I’m not going to walk away without a deal,” Kaine said.  “If something doesn’t get done, I’m going to stay until it does.”  I admire his conviction.  Transportation woes have long been talked about, teeth have been gnashed, and talked about some more.

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Not THE Gas Tax, but a Gas Tax IncreaseAnother Round of Tax IncreasesAn Opportunity for Truly Smart Growth in VA”Over the long term,” Kaine told the General Assembly, “the most important single change we can make is to reform the way we plan at both state and local levels.”  He added, “Our current system, in which local governments make land-use decisions and the state follows behind with transportation planning and funding, creates a situation where the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.”The bad news is that, while the governor’s diagnosis is generally correct, his solution focuses too much on what not to do.  The language about development and growth is not about wisely directing it, but rather about slowing it, curbing it, even halting it.In advocating more investment in transportation projects, especially adding lanes or building new roads, the governor has missed the opportunity to tie transportation investments much more explicitly to state, county and municipal land-use policies and practices.Kaine plan on Traffic Unleashes Swift BlitzIt “would in fact result in a complete moratorium in the construction of new housing in Northern Virginia,” (said) home builder W.  Craig Havenner ……Havenner refused to give up: “We don’t believe that the right approach is to shut down the economy while we catch up from 20-plus years of a complete lack of funding, particularly in the transportation area.”Wrong.More on the two WP articles later.

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