Fix VDOT First

A novel concept. Fix the problem first.

Our Chairman at Americans for Prosperity-Virginia, Paul Harris, has commentary in this week’s edition of Bacon’s Rebellion detailing some key areas for transportation reform.

In addition to pointing out concerns about the rapid growth of state government and the ever-growing tax burden on Virginia families, he asks the real questions about whether simply increasing transportation funding can fix things with the current state of VDOT.

Paul notes continuing problems within VDOT, including the lack of a permanent Commissioner for almost a year, continued opposition to greater accountability and transparency, and continued underperformance. As we’re already pointed out, hundreds of millions of dollars in savings can be realized through already identified common-sense reforms.

Paul gets to the real question of whether some leaders would have us put the cart before the horse, asking

“Shouldn’t VDOT be fixed before we pour more money into that broken system?”

When the root of many of the problems continues to be inefficiencies and lack of accountability, can we really justify giving VDOT a 25% increase in their budget?

Why is raising taxes always the “better way"?

Let’s fix VDOT first.

~whitney