Since 1990 I have served three governors as a citizen appointee on transportation policy and funding. During that time transportation has been and continues to be the number one issue in our district and our region. Nothing affects our quality of life quite as substantially as our inability to get to our destinations in a predictable, timely fashion whether it be to work, recreational activities, or running family errands. In this region, our loss in worker productivity due to lengthy commute times is over $1000 per commuter annually. The cost to individual business owners who cannot deliver their goods and services runs much higher. Commerce – and not just congestion – will be the casualty of our continued inaction.  We need to:

• Secure dedicated, sufficient and sustainable funding for statewide infrastructure needs. We haven’t had a substantial state funding increase for transportation since 1986 when we imposed a 17.5 cent gas tax and the cost of gas was 95 cents a gallon. The 2007 legislation to fund transportation at the state and regional levels was ruled unconstitutional except for a portion of bonding and local funding authority that is insufficient to the long term task of funding infrastructure statewide. Our maintenance requirements preempt scarce resources for construction; soon we will not be able to provide the match money to federal dollars for projects that have been planned for years.

• Make sure that northern Virginia receives its fair share of transportation funding. Our funding sources for transportation should apply to everyone who uses our roads, rail, and transit – not just Virginians. We live in a multi-state area and we are a big tourist destination, so let’s get the people who use our system to help pay for it and maintain it. Also, maintenance fund allocations benefit other parts of the state to the detriment of our area. Though we have a favorable formula for construction dollars, those funds are dwindling at an alarming rate and may be used only after our maintenance requirements have been met. We need both a statewide and a regional plan to address our congestion; after all, our economic vitality provides financial support for the rest of the Commonwealth.

• Insure that mass transit remains a crucial component of our transportation policy; promote land use policies that support transit friendly communities. Transit options reduce the need for cars and tie our region together. Coupled with dedicated HOV and HOT lanes, transit service provides an efficient way to reduce congestion, move people instead of cars, and improve air quality too. The addition of housing, particularly affordable options around transit stations creates additional benefits and a pedestrian friendly community life.

• Strengthen the infrastructure around Dulles Airport and the Virginia Port. Dulles and our Port are two enormous economic generators that each employs hundreds of thousands of people and together account for almost 6% of our state’s revenue. We are expanding Dulles; the capacity of the Virginia Port is expected to double when the work at Craney Island is complete. It is essential that we increase rail and road capacity at each as they grow to move commercial products throughout Virginia and into the Midwest “Heartland Corridor”.