Bob McDonnell has run out of gas

April 30, 2012

The Roanoke Times editorializes, "[S]tate leaders are most likely to swallow hard and raise road revenues right about now, while elections are but a distant anxiety for the 140 legislators, and Gov. Bob McDonnell is starting to wind up his term and contemplate his legacy. Instead, it appears that 2012's greatest achievement will be a law allowing the Virginia Department of Transportation to hawk naming rights for roads, an idea that's unlikely to underwrite more than a couple of turn lanes... McDonnell needs an image make-over, but don't count on it including stronger leadership on Virginia's transportation needs."

Progressive Point: Virginia families depend on the Commonwealth's transportation system to get to work, school, the grocery store, and more. We depend on our elected officials to fund and fix it when it's broken, but this year Governor McDonnell has shrunk from the task and passed the buck yet again.

In his final budget, Bob McDonnell failed to fix our roads, bridges, and infrastructure. Instead, he's buying fancy TV ads and leaving problems for the next governor to solve. Investing in transportation solutions is an investment in our families' and economy's future. But Bob McDonnell's transportation leadership failure has brought Virginia to an impasse. Virginia's families and businesses need leadership that will put our future in drive, but Bob McDonnell has run out of gas.

Get the Facts:

• McDonnell's transportation proposals would result in "decades of austerity for public education, universities, safety net programs and state troopers," and, even if enacted, would not meet Virginia's road maintenance needs. Previous failures to meet maintenance costs have resulted in $2.8 billion in construction budget shortfalls since 2005. (Roanoke Times, December 12, 2011)


• Virginia ranks 7th in the country in per capita income, but 47th in per capita spending on transportation. The reason for such a large imbalance is the majority of Virginia's transportation funding comes from the fuel tax which currently sits at just 17 cents per gallon. However, the gas tax would be "35 cents today had it been indexed for inflation." (Bob Chase, president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance, Daily Press, December 9, 2011)


• Bob McDonnell is currently spending $400,000 from his PAC on TV ads following a drop in his approval rating in a poll last month. (The Roanoke Times, April 29, 2012)

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