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DEPARTMENTS JANUARY 2010

Upfront—Dear Readers

Congratulations on being Virginia’s 71st governor.

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Bookmark and Share By Michael Jon Khandelwal

 

Congratulations on your recent election as Virginia’s 71st governor. You are filling a seat occupied by many of our founding fathers, including Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe.

We in Hampton Roads are especially excited for your upcoming term, as, unlike recent governors, you hail from our region and got your political start right here in Virginia Beach. So, we know you are well aware of the challenges facing us today.
I wrote several paragraphs about each challenge and then sent them by special currier to the plant where Hampton Roads Magazine is printed each month. I naively thought this would be the fastest way to get them to press.

Unfortunately the paragraphs got stuck in traffic at the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and missed getting to the printing press on time.

We don’t need those paragraphs. We both know what Hampton Roads means to Virginia. We have the largest natural harbor in the world, and more than $16 billion in exports and $11 billion in imports pass through here each year, employing more than 58,000 workers. In addition, hundreds of thousands of military personnel, civilians and their dependents contribute more than $10 billion to our local economy each year.

We know that nearly one half of all the tourists that visit Virginia spend their time in Hampton Roads, employing more than 40,000 and contributing billions to the economy.

We’re the commonwealth’s economic engine. Not Richmond. Not Northern Virginia. But it seems that whenever transportation funding is needed in those regions, the money magically appears, often taken from us. I wonder what it is that gives them the upper hand? Could it be because that’s where the politicians live? I guess they don’t like getting stuck in traffic.

In the late ’90s and early 2000s, Hampton Roads received 20 percent less road funding per capita than Richmond. In that same time we were shorted more than $400 million for road construction, yet it costs $1,300 a year to operate a car in Hampton Roads and only $1,000 in Richmond due to poor road safety, increased congestion and vehicle wear. That’s 20 percent less.

Looking at VDOT’s six-year road building proposals, Hampton Roads again gets shorted, with 13 percent less funding in 2010 and no interstate funds in 2011, while Northern Virginia gets more than 93 percent of the overall funding.

This is absolutely preposterous and frankly insulting. We’ve spent decades sending our tax money—as all good citizens in a commonwealth do—to help improve lives and the infrastructure in the rest of the state. But, in recent years, when we needed similar allocations, no one seemed to care.

We must improve our roads now, Gov. McDonnell. We need to expand the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. We need to build a third crossing that incorporates both high-speed and light rail. We need additions to the Midtown and Downtown Tunnels. We need the Southeastern Freeway. We need to widen I-64 both on the Peninsula and the Southside.

We’re tired of debates about taxes and tolls. Why should only Hampton Roads be taxed and tolled when our money built the roads across the commonwealth? If increasing the gas tax state-wide five cents per gallon would cost about $25 per person and raise upwards of $100 million each year, yet tolling a high-tech worker in Hampton Roads commuting from Virginia Beach to NASA could cost that person upward of $2,000 per year, which revenue source is more fair?

Those paragraphs about Hampton Roads that got stuck in traffic talked about supporting tourism and the arts and culture here; they talked about the Navy and the need to prevent moving a carrier to Florida; they talked about hurricane preparedness and the need for improved evacuation routes; they talked about cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and supporting our fishermen and our farmers; they talked about high-tech jobs and the modeling and simulation industry; they talked about expanding the port; they talked about expanding opportunity.

All these issues revolve around building and improving our infrastructure. How will farmers sell their crops, shippers move their freight, the Navy move personnel, tourists visit us and locals escape hurricanes if the connectors in and out of Hampton Roads are impassable?

We want to remind you that Hampton Roads’ prosperity is vital to the commonwealth’s prosperity. When our local economy takes a hit from a base closing, a drop in tourism or a decrease in port activity because the roads are inadequate, all of Virginia suffers. We want to be recognized for what we are: the state’s economic engine.

But you’re from here and you already know this, right?

Sincerely,
Hampton Roads

 

 

 

 

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