VIRGINIA - ARE YOU MEASURING UP...OR NOT?    --   ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

By Donna L. Snellings, Chairman of the Board, Prince William Regional Chamber of Commerce

On September 27, all 140 of the Commonwealth's elected representatives to the Virginia General Assembly will return to Richmond for a "special session" focused solely on transportation.  But don't hold your breath waiting for on any substantial solution.  Legislative gridlock may again rear its ugly head because the main question in some people's minds is whether taxes should be raised - again.

And yet, something needs to be done.  Because of under-investment in transportation infrastructure over many decades, the Commonwealth has established a long-term trend that is having near-disastrous results in Northern Virginia.  Clogged roads rob our families of the quality-of-life for which they yearn.  Clogged roads negatively impact the business community's bottom line.  To make matters worse, because no new funding streams have been created for transportation since Gerald Baliles was Governor in 1986, a greater proportion of available transportation dollars must be used for road maintenance. This means a declining amount of money is available for new construction and declining at such a rapid rate that we soon won’t be able to collect federal transportation dollars because our new construction dollars will be an inadequate match.

The Prince William Regional Chamber of Commerce is closely following the developments related to transportation investment with a great deal of concern because it is not clear that all the right questions are - or will be - asked.  What brings the Region’s Chamber to this point is a conundrum: Virginia is rare among all 50 states in that it enjoys a AAA Bond rating - and was recently recognized by Forbes as the most business friendly state in the nation - but Virginia is also near the bottom when it comes to being able to measure itself.

It was just this past year that the Commonwealth of Virginia finally unveiled a state budget document that provides detail similar to that found in many local budgets.  In contrast to the state budget, Prince William County, like many local jurisdictions, looks at the results it hopes to achieve and then identifies the dollars it needs to spend and later reviews its accomplishments to make sure its dollars were well spent. The Commonwealth also will need to examine its results and incorporate what it learns in subsequent budgets, always looking for cost savings and presenting clear and comprehensive information that would allow citizens and elected officials to easily understand what is happening and therefore be able to ask the right questions.

It begs the question: how can our representatives do a good job of representing our interests when there is no way to really know how effectively your tax dollars are being spent?  Clearly, part of the problem is that our delegates and senators to the General Assembly are part-time citizen legislators typically supported by only one legislative aide. And there is little cost-analysis available to help legislators, other than the work of the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Committee (or JLARC), which crunches reports for our elected officials related to specific legislation.

But there is some good news. A bi-cameral, bi-partisan group of legislators called the Cost Cutting Caucus is looking at ways to bring the Commonwealth into the new millennium.  Delegate Chris Saxman who owns a bottled water company out in the Shenandoah Valley co-chairs this group of reform-minded legislators.  The issues and solutions talked about in the Cost Cutting Caucus are un-exciting to most, however, they consist of the fundamental reforms that in the long run will make the Commonwealth a better place to live and do business. Local Delegate Scott Ligamfelter is one contributor to the Cost Cutting Caucus' effort. Among other things, he has advocated for an inspector general.  In private business, you would call this an audit function - it is a very different skill set than anything that now exists in Richmond, and such an effort deserves consideration.

Will new fees or taxes be needed for transportation?  Maybe.  But focusing on fees and taxes alone widely misses the mark.  Without the ability to further examine how well the state is spending money – or the ability to compare and explore best practices in other states - the Commonwealth is resigned to loosely borrow McDonald's slogan: “Mllions and millions served.”  Your Prince William Regional Chamber of Commerce has been advocating and will continue to advocate for a state budget process that is more transparent and measurable. The business community and the tax-paying public deserves it!

The Prince William Regional Chamber of Commerce, an organization of more than 1,100 businesses throughout Prince William County, the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, and other surrounding jurisdictions, has communicated with Prince William’s delegation to the General Assembly to urge legislators to take a leadership role in the State’s Special Transportation Session in late September. Through three Op Ed pieces, the Region’s Chamber acknowledges there are many issues our legislators must face to bring relief to the gridlock that plagues our region. Among them is state budget reform, as outlined in this editorial comment.