As we enter the 2011 commonwealth election cycle, there are a number of proposals coming from Republican sources that rely on bonds to pay for needed improvements to our infrastructure. The problem with that is the fact the none of these bonds come with an attendant new source of funding to service them in the long-term. In essence, these proposals put major new expenditures on Virginia’s state credit card, leaving us with the bill after the Governor (and others) leave office.

The issue of addressing Virginia’s (and Loudoun’s) needs is not one of financing, but one of funding.

Governor McDonnell’s proposal is perhaps the most prominent.

As part of his budget amendments presented in Richmond in December, McDonnell said he wants to help pay for $4 billion in new transportation spending by issuing $3 billion in bonds. Pulling in more money for road improvements is a major component of the governor’s initiatives for the upcoming 2011 legislative session, which starts Jan. 12. – The Loudoun Times-Mirror

The Loudoun Times gets it right in using the language “pulling in more money” rather than saying “finding new money.” The money the governor proposes to use is already in the Commonwealth’s financing plan for the long-term. He just wants to spend all of it, now. He wants to max out the state credit card on the first of the month. Which begs the question, how will we finance needed improvements in three or five years, when those bonds were already issued?

Follow below for a rough lesson in fiscal policy.  A similar argument is advanced by Leesburg Councilmember Ken Reid, in terms of the Silver Line and the Dulles toll Road.

Therefore, I have been proposing to several Fairfax and Loudoun supervisors, and state officials, to have the state take back the Dulles Rail project from the Airports Authority, use state-backed bonds for construction and apply for federal mass transit New Starts funding for Phase II. – Ken Reid, Leesburg Patch

Leaving aside for the moment the irony of Council member Reid, who voted against essential maintenance of roads in Leesburg, advocating for more local control of the most significant transportation improvement in our region’s history, Reid’s “use state-backed bonds” plan is a dead letter from the start. The Governor’s plan already uses up all the state’s debt capacity. Furthermore, even if those bonds were available to apply to the Silver Line, getting Assembly buy-in for allocating them in that manner is no slam-dunk. And this is ignoring the fact that the cost of issuing and maintaining bonds (interest rates) is getting higher, not lower, for local governments.

Ultimately, however, the procedural niceties of using bonds pale in comparison with the risks to our Commonwealth’s future of issuing bonds without an attendant funding source to service them.

When we issue bonds, we need to pay them down, and pay the interest on them, every year. That money comes directly out of general (tax, fees, etc.) revenues. If we issue more debt without finding a way to also increase general revenues, we must, necessarily, allocate more future revenues from a fixed pot to debt service. When we do that, we leave ourselves less money to maintain our roads in the future. The money we could use in 2014 to pay for road maintenance and construction would have to go to servicing the bonds issued in 2011. Yes, issuing bonds so we will have more money for roads today will actually leave us with far less (not more) money for roads tomorrow!

The Governor and Mr. Reid’s proposals boil down to “let’s get another credit card, and max that one out.” Any financial advisor, or high-school student with a job and a credit card, can tell you that you don’t get a new credit card unless you have gotten a raise. Well, the Governor and Mr. Reid have proposed no way to give the state coffers a raise. Maxing out the state’s debt today is not just imprudent, it is fiscally reckless.

Virginia has a long, and worthy, tradition of fiscal astuteness. The last time we tried a financing-without-funding scheme, we were promised “no car tax.”

How did that work out?

It is up to the people of Virginia, and Loudoun, to be the parents in this analogy. we must send a message to Mr. McDonnell and his allies like Mr. Reid, that new debt without new funding sources is irresponsible. It puts our commonwealth’s future at risk for the sake of a political goal today.

Virginia is better than that. Virginia deserves better from our elected officials, at every level.

[Update] – Sen. Herring makes this point in response to the Governor’s State of the Commonwealth address, demonstrating real leadership.

He also questioned the governor’s proposal to borrow $3 billion for transportation and transit projects. McDonnell’s plan doesn’t provide a long-term funding solution to fix northern Virginia’s congested roads, and it doesn’t provide a revenue stream to repay the bonds, Herring said.

“What are we going to do over the next 17 years while we’re repaying this? (McDonnell) kind of punted the problem to his successor instead of being bold and dealing with it now,” Herring said. “On the other hand, this is something I’m going to have to look at very carefully. We’ve got some of the worst traffic in the nation.” – Sen. Mark Herring

It’s always dangerous to point out typos, or to discuss proof-reading at all, because it guarantees that in that post or the very next one there will be at least one glaring error.

“For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?”

– Jane Austen  

If you don’t already have a campaign manager, get one. Now.

Don’t spend any money on anything unless and until you have a campaign manager.

If you don’t know where to find a campaign manager, ask someone who has used a campaign manager where they found theirs.

Make sure you think the manager is someone you can work closely with and someone you won’t mind taking direction from.

Once you’ve found and hired your campaign manager, follow their advice. Put your trust in what they tell you about your race and how to win it.

Loudoun County will have at least 30 races this year. Do NOT expect to get any help from outside your district.

There will be at least 11 races on the ballot in each precinct: School Board; At-Large School Board; Supervisor; Chair of BOS; Delegate; State Senate; Sheriff; Commonwealth’s Attorney; Treasurer; Commissioner of the Revenue; and Soil and Water.

Some districts, therefore, may be dealing with as many as 16 races, depending on how the HOD and Senate redistricting falls out.

The current Dulles District, for example, contains portions of four different current HOD districts: LeMunyon’s (Little River), Marshall’s, Rust’s (Oakgrove), and Greason’s.

Do not look for volunteers or advice from people outside your district boundaries. In fact, unless you are willing to coordinate with other campaigns, don’t expect much help from people who are not actual staff and/or family members within your district either. They will be spread pretty thinly.

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I want to thank LI for pointing out the errors I made in this post and acknowledge that it’s easy to neglect to follow the points I made in the post below.

So here is an object lesson:

1) I always forget how to spell Del. Greason’s name, so I should always check it.

2) The list of offices on the ballot came directly from a comment I made on facebook, where space was an issue. I should have corrected it when I cut and pasted it here.

Moments like this make me glad I’m not a candidate!

Have someone else proof-read your statements, emails, etc, before you send them.

I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. Your written words are representations of you, the candidate. If your writing contains misspellings, grammatical errors, or misused words, people will not be able to read your message as clearly. Voters will tend to think that your thoughts are as muddled as the words you use to express them.

Supervisor Andrea McGimsey (D-Potomac) announced yesterday that she will be seeking a second term as Potomac District supervisor in Loudoun County. We here at Loudoun Progress couldn’t be happier.

Andrea has been in the forefront in moving Loudoun County towards energy efficiency,  along with job creation through the efficient use of energy. She also has been a leader in ensuring safe access for bicyclists and pedestrians, which not only is a public safety issue, but also an issue that deals with cleaner environment, traffic reduction, and overall healthy living.

Through Andrea’s hard work, she helped plan the Loudoun Energy Strategy, funded as part of a $2.2 million federal grant, which provides guidelines to residences and businesses on how to increase their energy efficiency. The plan also puts the focus on development projects that are energy efficient. According to the Washington Post, the projects funded under the strategy created “an estimated 70 new jobs” and saved the county “more than $125,000 in energy costs”.  Retrofitting for energy efficiency is a triple threat: it’s good for the environment, it saves money, and it creates jobs. Andrea is a leader in that area.In addition, the Board, in December, passed three of Ms. McGimsey’s initiatives aimed at making Loudoun safer for bicyclists and pedestrians. The county will prioritize a list of bicycle and pedestrian projects in order to apply for federal funds when they become available. At the top of the list is a project aimed at giving bicyclists and pedestrians safe and easy access to the future Silver Line Metro stations at Routes 606 and 772. Reducing the number of cars on the road, improving our commutes, making our air cleaner, and keeping people safer is another way Andrea is proving her worth as a leader.

Andrea has also worked hard to see that Loudoun County not only passed a balanced budget this past year, but also passed a budget with a $94 million surplus. For a county that had been mired in budgetary difficulties because of the poor decisions made by the previous board, the long hours and years spent on getting Loudoun back in the black again is all due to the work of dedicated public servants and leaders such as Andrea McGimsey.

Loudoun County is better off because of Andrea serving on the Board of Supervisors, and we look forward to 4 more years of her leadership representing Eastern Loudoun.

Go Andrea!!

With the 2011 General Assembly session opening today, I thought it would be important to highlight a bill that Del. Bob Marshall (R-13) plans to introduce.

No, I’m not talking about his proposed legislation which would ban openly gay servicemembers from serving in the Virginia National Guard.

No, instead, Mr. Marshall is going to introduce legislation seeking to allow Virginia to print its own money, specifically the minting of gold and silver coins.

Yep. You read that correctly.Mr. Marshall seems to think that the Federal Government has a monopoly on printing money. Well, they do, as a matter of fact, because it really makes it convenient to every citizen of this country, while traveling the land, to be able to use the same legal tender. We don’t need to be bothered with going to an exchange office in say, Florida, when we want to go to Disney World, for example.

This is quirky legislation, which actually does nothing to help the citizens of this fine commonwealth. Does it help fix our traffic woes? No. Does it help improve our schools? No. Does it do anything of consequence other than to get Mr. Marshall’s name in the paper? No.

It’s high time that the residents of Virginia’s 13th district see through Mr. Marshall’s charade, see that nothing Mr. Marshall proposes helps his district or the Commonwealth in any way, and see that they need new, effective leadership in the General Assembly. A person who will represent THEM, not a delegate’s own personal agenda.

The 13th district can do that this November.

There are many historical markers that people use to judge what generation a person is in. Were you born before or after WWII? Before or after Kennedy was shot? Before or after we landed on the moon? Before or after the Wall came down?

On Saturday, I was at the NARAL Prochoice VA Retreat and realized that there’s another one:

I was born before “Roe”.

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You all know how I feel about guns (short version, they’re okay by me, but don’t point them my way), but I don’t understand why the sale and manufacture of clips to hold large amounts of ammunition for handguns is allowed.

What legitimate need does it fulfill? Hunting? Not with a handgun. Home defense? What, 9 or 11 bullets won’t do? Militia duties? Again, not with a handgun.

The combination of an easily hidden handgun and a large clip of ammunition increased the scope of Saturday’s tragedy.

So, why? What legitimate purpose did the availability of that clip serve?

(Yes, yes, I know that the ammunition clip didn’t kill and injure the people at that event, that the shooter did. But he wouldn’t have killed or injured as many people without that clip.)

My thoughts are with the friends, families, and victims.