Collegiate Times

With the election cycle complete, Governor-elect Tim Kaine is wasting no time in addressing the issue of transportation funding within the commonwealth. He began yesterday with a town hall meeting in Roanoke and will hold others throughout the state to get citizens? input on what to do regarding transportation. This is a commendable effort on Kaine?s part, and we who are Virginians should take an active role in this process.

While much of the debate will concern whether or not to raise the gas tax from its current rate of 17.5 cents per gallon, there is a more fundamental issue that deserves attention: the security of the Virginia Transportation Trust Fund. In theory, 100 percent of all fuel taxes ? including those on diesel and aviation fuel ? go to the transportation fund to be used for ? you guessed it ? improving Virginia?s transportation infrastructure.

Unfortunately, the fund is susceptible to the whims of certain greedy politicians, who have in the past been unable to keep their hands off of it. As an example, $332 million was diverted from the fund in 2002 for purposes besides transportation, and there currently is nothing to prohibit the legislature from doing that again.

What is needed is an amendment to Virginia?s Constitution that would set up the Transportation Fund (a la Al Gore lockbox-style) so the tax dollars collected for transportation are only used for transportation.

While a very good idea on its own, this proposal is just one plank of a larger platform called the Freedom & Prosperity Agenda, the goals of which are to ensure accountability in state government and boost Virginia?s economic growth. Even though this agenda is currently garnering the attention of libertarians and fiscal conservatives, many of its planks transcend party and philosophical lines, and should be supported by a large majority of Virginians. The constitutional amendment to protect transportation funding is one I think we can all agree upon.

Another is to protect private property from eminent domain abuse. For those who are unfamiliar with this issue, eminent domain is the power that allows state and local governments to seize private property for public use. In the past, ?public use? has been defined to mean a highway or a school. However, a recent Supreme Court decision (Kelo. vs. New London) expands that definition to frighteningly new levels. To sum it up, the city of New London, Conn., wanted to seize an entire neighborhood of houses and give the land over to Pfizer Corporation in the name of ?economic development.? The court ruled that the city was within its legal authority under Connecticut law to seize the houses.

In response, several states have passed laws prohibiting local governments from taking the private property of one party and handing it over to another. Sadly, Virginia does not currently have sound safeguards against this sort of abuse of power. A plank of the Freedom & Prosperity Agenda is to ensure that the private lands of Virginians remain safe from developers who have local politicians in their pockets.

Third on the agenda is the elimination of the gross receipts tax. This is a tax all businesses must pay on their gross revenue ? money taken in before the costs of doing business are subtracted out. Unlike the income tax, the gross receipts tax must be paid regardless of whether a business is running a profit or a loss. Therein lies the bitterest aspect of the tax: it does the most harm to those who can least afford to pay. Wal-Mart and Target have no problem paying this tax. Small businesses ? many of which do not make profits until several years after their founding ? must bear this burden while simply trying to stay afloat.

Small businesses are the lifeblood of any economy. One need only take a five-minute walk in downtown Blacksburg to see that this is true here, and it?s true everywhere else in Virginia. Small businesses create jobs where employees are generally retained longer and given greater respect from the employer.

By the way, the gross receipts tax was originally passed to pay for the War of 1812. As one state senator from Fairfax recently put it, we need to have a victory party in Richmond next year, both for defeating the British in 1814 and for ending this unfair and unnecessary tax burden on small businesses.

There are several other planks on the Freedom & Prosperity Agenda that I do not have space to mention here, but they can all be read at www.TertiumQuids.org, the website of the think tank which created the Agenda.

The best news is that this agenda is no mere pipe dream. John Taylor, president of Tertium Quids, said 42 out of 140 members of the General Assembly currently support the Agenda. Let us all encourage all of our legislators ? Delegates Shuler and Nutter, please take note ? to actively support this plan for a better Virginia.