Franconia, VA- Late last week Chairman Mullins sent out an e-mail criticizing Democratic members of the General Assembly for not having a transportation plan. While I do not speak for my Democratic colleagues, a response was warranted. Below is the e-mail our office received from the Republican Party of Virginia and my response.

Letter from Chairman Pat Mullins

December 10, 2010

Senate Democratic Caucus

House of Delegates Democratic Caucus

910 Capitol Square

Richmond, Virginia 23219

Dear Democratic Legislator:

I hope this letter finds you well and in good spirits this holiday season. We truly live in a beautiful Commonwealth, and that beauty is especially pronounced around the holidays.

I realize this letter is likely unexpected, and we're all busy preparing for family gatherings and the General Assembly session, so I'll cut right to the chase.  We've all spent hours stuck in traffic jams caused by roads with too few lanes, too many pot holes, and too many cars. There's not a person in Virginia who doesn't want to see this problem fixed. What we need are ideas.

Governor Mark Warner is fond of saying, 'Good ideas don't come with a 'D' or an 'R' attached to them.'  While I don't often agree with Mark Warner, in this case he's absolutely right. If you don't like the Governor McDonnell's ideas for transportation, that's fine. There's room for debate. The free and open exchange of ideas is what makes this wonderful experiment in self governance work.

I'm writing to you today to invite you to share your plan with us. Transportation is a big problem, and there's no room for "inside the box" thinking. If you have an idea, we want to hear it. Ideas are the engines that make our country and Commonwealth move. Governor McDonnell has repeatedly asked you and other Democrats for their ideas to fix transportation, but thus far there has been no response. And that's understandable. I can imagine the partisan peer pressure that you and your colleagues have faced, discouraging you from crossing the aisle. The first step is always the hardest.

So, if for some reason you feel uncomfortable reaching out to the Governor, just drop by our Headquarters on Grace Street. You don't even have to come in the front door. We're putting a drop box in the atrium. Just open the door, and drop your plan. Any format you like.

I'll go one better - I'll personally carry each and every idea that you and your colleagues bring to us over to Capitol Square and present them to the Governor. It's that important. And we will give credit where credit is due. If you, or any other Democrat comes up with the blockbuster idea that solves the problem, I'll personally announce it and introduce you at a press conference as "The Architect of Our Transportation Solution." I'm sure the applause will be long and loud. It will be well deserved.

But if the Democratic playbook is what I fear - no new ideas, no new roads, no new construction jobs, no nothing until the gas tax is increased - voters need to know that, too. They need to know which parties are out looking for ideas and trying to solve the problem, and which ones are just digging in their heels to raise taxes on hard working Virginia families in the middle of a recession.

Recent comments from Chairman Moran, House Minority Leader Armstrong and others give me great pause, and I fear that the aforementioned 'tax-hike or nothing' might actually be their position. They seem intent on raising taxes, as opposed to the level of discourse. But I hold out great hope for you and the rest of the Democrat caucus.

I'm sure your great ideas are just hours or days away from our drop box. I've left instructions with the staff to check it hourly and to call me immediately when we receive them, and the Governor's staff is on standby. I can't tell you how excited I am at the prospect of working with you to solve this pressing problem!

Happy Holidays,

Pat Mullins

Response sent from Delegate Mark Sickles

December 15, 2010

Mr. Pat Mullins

Chairman, Republican Party of Virginia

115 E. Grace Street

Richmond, VA  23219

Dear Pat,

So nice to hear from you!  While we’ve certainly missed you since you moved to Bumpass, Fairfax County has enjoyed enormous success since you left.  I am not saying that the there was a cause and effect to your departure, but under reasonable, thoughtful leadership here, our residents enjoy a relatively high standard of living. We are providing our students with a first class education and succeeding with limited assistance from the Commonwealth, although our economic success is keeping Virginia solvent.

We do have significant transportation challenges.  Thanks to federal earmarks from Sen. John Warner, Rep. Frank Wolf, Rep. Tom Davis, and our current formidable congressional delegation, we have been able to build some significant regional transportation projects despite our declining, inflation-eroded, dedicated non-General Fund revenue sources.  Virginia has, so far, been able to scratch together the 10-20 percent non-federal share whenever that has been required.  Our commercial landowners and toll road drivers are financing rail to Dulles and beyond with vital and integral federal dollars and without State support.  Due to your recent political successes, however, the prospects are grim for similar federal dollars to backfill the State’s ongoing disinvestment in transportation.

It would be good to get some transportation help from Richmond, but we can already borrow money inexpensively without assistance.  A State that obligates future General Fund resources to build roads today simply inflicts a back door cut to higher education down the road. 

The need for new transportation revenue is evident to anyone who has studied our system.  As Ronald Reagan, who himself raised the gas tax, once said: “facts are stubborn things.”  The General Fund is already stretched thin.  We have a growing K-12 population.  Our Medicaid program is ranked 48^th in helping our disabled, poor children and the elderly.  We have more than 5,000 families with disabled children on a waiting list for services.  Higher education has been cut to the bone, a problem Governor McDonnell pledges to turn around.

At one point, these facts were clear to the Governor.  Attorney General McDonnell was highly engaged in the passage of Speaker Howell’s bill, H.B. 3202, a bill that raised new, desperately needed, dedicated revenue.  When local governments objected to having a State responsibility dumped on them, General McDonnell worked with Governor Kaine to split the responsibility between a (unconstitutional) taxing authority and the localities.  There was no warning from the AG that the new local taxing power was unconstitutional in the run up to approval in the 2007 reconvened session.  You might be surprised to know that H.B. 3202 included authority for a 2 percent gas tax in Hampton Roads.  After the unanimous defeat of the Speaker’s bill on constitutional grounds, Governor Kaine introduced two real revenue bills: neither included a gas tax.

Therefore, one answer to your taunt is for the General Assembly to enact the very same taxes that we authorized the transportation authorities to enact in 2007.  Until a week ago, at least two senior Northern Virginia Republicans were planning to introduce such a bi-partisan bill in the upcoming session, but for some reason, their plans changed.  Delegate Vivian Watts. will now introduce the bill herself and I will be happy to co-patron her bill. 

In case you are not aware, transportation is funded almost solely across the United States by dedicated transportation revenues.  We have four in Virginia: the gas tax, 0.5 percent of the retail sales tax, the three percent titling tax paid upon the purchase of an automobile, and annual vehicle licenses.  In 1986, the state gas tax was raised from 15 to 17.5 cents per gallon.  The gas tax provides the lion’s share of our funding (unfortunately, now down to 39 percent of the total) and was once considered a “user fee” by Republican leaders.  You can look that up.  Nobody ever expected the 1986 gas tax increase to be the final increase, forever and ever.  Since it is per gallon tax, its purchasing power has been eroded by more than half over the last 24 years while Virginia grew by more than two million people, the number of cars by 70 percent, and the number of vehicle miles traveled by 100 percent. 

The Governor’s plan does not come with a dedicated, reliable revenue stream to retire the new debt.  While I disagree with Delegate Brenda Pogge’s position that “we should sit tight and let the economy get well” before passing a real transportation program, she is certainly right when she says “we should not be borrowing and spending” and that debt proposal is “too much” and that “we can’t afford it right now.”   As the economy continues to recover from the Great Recession—we are in the 15^th month of modest economic growth—there will be some revenue from increasing retail sales and car sales, but not enough to build the projects we need to move Virginia forward.  It will not fill the gaping maintenance deficit nor ensure safe Metro trains.  We need $1 billion more each year, not debt that will just put us further behind in years ahead.

Pat, thank you for taking me back to the good ole days when we could count on you to get our people pumped and to the polls on Election Day.  A good high schoolish taunt over the internet is not quite as good as debating you face to face, and I apologize for such a wonkish response, but I tell my constituents that we are simply going to have to wait out the next three years for a meaningful opening to restore the purchasing power of our dedicated transportation revenues to 1986 levels.  I would be happy to be proven wrong.

Very best for the holidays,

Mark D. Sickles