Transit on Thursday: Will Kaine Be Able? Edition

Kaine He or Kaine't He?
It's almost as if no one ever expected the Virginia Legislature to get this far. However, last Saturday, state lawmakers sent a narrowly-passed transportation bill to the Governor's desk. Unfortunately for Kaine, after months imploring partisan legislators to find common ground, he found that such bipartisan real estate comes with a hefty price. The bill would fund road and transit improvements with increased fines for bad drivers and higher registration fees for cars and trucks, though the hikes were not as much as Kaine had asked for. Northern Virginia municipalities could add up to $400 million more in funding each year by increasing local taxes and fees. The largest chunk of money, however, would come from $2.5 billion in bonds, to be repaid out of the state's general fund.

The problem is that Kaine, many other Democrats, and some Senate Republicans, are opposed to using money from the general fund that is typically spent on schools, health care, and law enforcement. That point, along with the fact that no statewide tax or fee increases were included, are such deal breakers that some have been calling for Kaine to veto the bill. Fairfax officials might be getting a bit ahead of themselves though; Kaine still has the opportunity to make his own changes to the bill and send it back for the legislature to review in a special session on April 4. Lawmakers will then vote whether to accept Kaine's changes and send it back to him for a final decision.

In the mean time, Kaine will be using the power of the bully pulpit, criss-crossing the Commonwealth for a "statewide discussion" of the bill. Kaine hopes to build enough support for his ideas (and make enough headlines) that the legislature will be forced to accept what he calls "significant changes". If they refuse, the Governor himself has also threatened the V-word, calling the bill "a worthless piece of paper that does very little for a critical region of our state."

Republicans who support the bill have responded by saying that Kaine is exaggerating the effect of the bill on the general fund, claiming that it would have little impact on state coffers. Though they are standing their ground in support of their package, they are at a distinct disadvantage politically, having only the ability to vote up or down on Kaine's rewrite. They might have one trump card left, however -- passing transportation reform was one of Kaine's most prominent campaign promises, and his legacy as governor (and the party of his successor) may depend on its passage.

The only question is, how much does Kaine's legacy matter to him? As some have speculated, with no realistic options for higher office in Kaine's immediate future, it doesn't mean much. At least not enough to concede to a bad deal for Virginians.

In Maryland, Study The Money
Maryland's newly-elected Governor Martin O'Malley has also been talking transportation. He has supported the controversial Intercounty Connector throughout his campaign, while also talking about the need for significant new transit projects such as the Purple Line between Bethesda and New Carrollton. However, as the state has aggressively taken the fight to build the ICC to court, it is balking at transit priorities it claims to support. Along with the Purple Line, O'Malley's transportation secretary has shelved the Corridor Cities Transitway, between Shady Grove and Clarksburg, and the Red Line project in Baltimore due to flawed studies that underestimated the amount of riders.

Red or Purple, color us skeptical. O'Malley's predecessor, Robert Ehrlich, did everything he could to talk about supporting transit while pouring all the state's financial resources into the ICC. He even got the state legislature to commit years of future federal transportation assistance to the $2.5 to $4 billion ICC. As one state official came right out and said, this has left precious little for any other significant project. Ehrlich only had to delay and distract until the end of his term. O'Malley still has at least 3 and a half years ahead of him. We could be wrong, but we'll be keeping our eye out for future "delays".

Illegally Parked Cars May Be Ticketed and Blogged
It's been a long time since we've had to park anywhere. However, that doesn't mean we can't empathize with those who are infuriated by bad parking. In lots and (especially) Metro garages, people edge into the space on one side or the other, or even take up two spaces diagonally. On the street, cars leave gaps just a bit too small for anyone to fit in front of behind them, or push in so close you can barley get out. Believe us when we tell you we are glad we don't have to find parking on a regular basis. While a few mis-parked cars might not seem like a big deal, if you are running late and searching for a space, that obnoxious Beamer may suddenly seem as if it's denying you oxygen.

Though illegally parked cars might get cited, unfortunately there is no law against stupidity or selfishness. So as more and more people are wont to do, someone started a blog about it! The Examiner's Steve Eldridge points us to Parkly.net, where you can snap a photo of parking's worst offenders, post it to the website along with a message, and leave a Parkly "citation" on their windshield, directing them to their online ignominy.

Parkly states (though a fantastic run-on sentence) that the goal of the site is to initiate communication between those with poor parking skills and those they offend. Some preliminary results, which are not all that impressive, are posted to Parkly's blog. We love the idea, though, and let's be honest -- getting blogged is way better than getting keyed!