Transpo & Karma

A fortnightly rant, FL-S style:

By now, 95% of the population of Virginia - from Fredericksburg north - is aware that Virginia’s Supreme Court ruled last year’s transpo package unconstitutional.  About half of the $1.1 billion funding plan relied on funds generated from local (Northern Virginia) taxing authorities, which the court has said the General Assembly and the Governor were out-of-bounds in enacting.

A major component of the broader package passed last year included the so-called Abusive Driver Fees, mandatory levies of up to $3,000 to have been paid by those found guilty of violations including expired tags and inspection stickers.    After a huge public outcry, the Abusive Driver Fees were voted-down by the General Assembly.

The granddaddy of all physics lessons, (Sir Isaac) Newton’s Third Law of Motion, states that ”for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”. 

The granddaddy of all metaphysics lessions, The Law of Karma, states that the effects of all past deeds actively create present and future experiences, or simply stated, you get what you give.

Physics and metaphysics together undid this abortion of a transpo plan.

The grandest recipients of this karmic lesson are House Speaker Bill Howell (R-Falmouth Light) and his majority in the House of Delegates who through HB3202 grandly took credit for fixing transpo with a plan founded on faulty and unreliable funding mechanisms, that in the end FIXED NOTHING. 

Question is, and to paraphrase that great Jungian mind, G.W. Bush, is our House Republicans learning?  The answer is, no.

A successful karmic lesson would have resulted in a lightbulb-over-the-head “I get it” moment. 

These clowns slept through their lesson.  For if they were paying attention in class they would have realized that the only fair way to fund tranpo improvements that benefit all Virginians, assure businesses that Virginia is the place to be, and get its workers to and from work (safely), would have been a simple, declarative, reliable, and legally-sound plan based on a modest increase in the gasoline tax.

If we had such a plan already enacted, we Virginians would have been well on our way to seeing our commutes shorten, our roads become safer, and our fortunes improve.

If this collosal collapse had its own theme song, it would be Bananarama’s “Cruel, Cruel Summer”.