Back home, it’s time to elect a new governor. The Virginia race this year has been amusing when watched from afar; now it’s getting ridiculous.
Jerry Kilgore, the conservative Republican candidate has tried his best to find issues with which he can win. He’s trotted out a completely ridiculous campaign promise, one that any voter with even a reptilian brain will know he can’t accomplish: he says, and I quote:
I’ll widen I-66 inside the Beltway,” he said during the Sept. 13 debate with his Democratic opponent, Timothy M. Kaine, sponsored by the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce.
Let me just say that many years ago, Jim Gilmore ran for governor on a campaign promise to eliminate the hated personal property tax on cars. He ended up pulling a bait and switch: the tax was reduced on individual tax payers, but it wasn’t eliminated. He just paid part of your tax out of state funds, causing a huge budget problem. To this day, the tax still isn’t gone; I just paid my from here in California.
Route 66 inside the Beltway is a four-lane, limited-access highway. It destroyed neighborhoods in Arlington County, and Arlington hasn’t forgotten. Arlington won’t allow it to be widened, period. And there’s damn little room to widen it anyway. For much of its length inside the Beltway, it’s recessed into the ground with huge concrete sound walls to minimize the intrusion into quiet Arlington communities. Since the road was built in 1982, people have tried to get it widened, to no avail. And frankly, I think a far better plan would be to fund the expansion of Metro so that people wouldn’t have to drive on congested I-66.
VDOT officials speculate privately that widening the road in both directions would cost $224 million to $466 million, depending on the scope of the project.
Another example of a Republican who cuts taxes and then spends more? Where would that money come from?
Oh, wait — maybe he’d have to increase the car tax.
Kiss the babies and make unrealistic promises.
