Is Road Referendum a Pig in the Poke?

lewleadbeater.com

notes from the edge

Home

Email Me

				THE
Column Archive				VIRGINIA GAZETTE
				WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
Is Road Referendum a Pig in the Poke?				April 13, 2002

In 425 BC, Aristophanes, the Greek comic poet, produced a play called The Acharnians.

In one of its scenes a down-and-out trader from Megara comes to Athens, ostensibly to sell two pigs, which just happen to be wrapped in a sack. However, the squeals of the pigs in the sack sound more like “wee-wees” than “oink oinks,” and in fact it turns out that the trader is passing off his two small daughters as pigs.

This may well be the first appearance of the idea of a “pig in a poke,” though most experts in the field of pokery trace the phrase back to medieval times, when unscrupulous traders would offer unwary buyers a pig and wrap it up in a sack, or poke. When the buyer opened the poke, he would find not a pig, but a cat. Hence the expression “let the cat out of the bag.”

The reason I go into all this is because the orcs and hobbits who make up the state legislature have, of late, been deeply into pokery and are out to foist on us consumers, their constituents, several faux pigs, called referenda

The whole concept of referenda is suspect and an exercise in political nitwittery. At its worst, it is an attempt to destroy representative democracy by placing the onus of decision making on the shoulders of a generally uninformed public.

Equally outrageous is the fact that, while our political experts, the people we elect to represent us, can spend endless hours debating such nonsense as nailing the Ten Commandments to everything that doesn’t move, they refuse to make hard political decisions that affect the very infrastructure of our society. When it comes to the transportation-highway debacle we’re faced with, for instance, they take a pass and tell the public to decide.

So in November we in James City, York and Williamsburg, along with residents of other regions of eastern Virginia, will have to vote on a referendum which would authorize the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (HRPDC), to, as SB668 says, “ issue debt in a principal amount not exceeding $5,990,000,000.”

In other words, we the people will be faced with an almost $6 billion dollar decision. In addition, we have to approve, in order to pay for these bonds, “an additional one percent retail sales and use tax.” Interesting too is the stipulation that this referendum can be carried “by a simple majority of the voters voting at such election in the entire region constituted by such counties and cities.”

That, I submit, may set up a very interesting scenario, and especially here in Williamsburg and James City, where Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-1^st), and Sen. John Warner (R) will all be, we assume, running unopposed

Where, then, does that leave the referendum? Presumably, if there are no contested elections in our area, we might expect a voter turnout of between 30 and 40% of registered voters, if that many, with only a simple majority of them needed to float $6 billion worth of bonds.

Can we trust that such a minority of the voters in Williamsburg, York, and James City know enough about this referendum to make a meaningful decision?

Probably not, since even the legislators who drew up the bill are unsure where it’s all going. Where, for instance, will the money collected from an increased sales tax go? To the state? To VDOT?

According to the bill, the HRDPC will be in charge of floating the bonds for the Eastern Virginia Regional Transportation Project. In addition, something called the Eastern Virginia Transportation District, a replica of HRDPC, will be established to facilitate the collection and disbursement of monies.

Melanie Rapp (R-96^th), who opposes the initiative, says that the taxes will be collected by the state and put into a trust run by the HRDPC, which then will have the authority to make contracts with state and other agencies, like VDOT. And this, says Rapp, will in turn set up a whole new government agency and a “mini VDOT,” though what she means by that is not clear.

What is clear, however, is that once the state gets into the act, caveat emptor should be the buzzwords of the day. We all remember how the state was going to put the money collected from the lottery into an educational trust fund.

What’s even worse is that no one seems to know how long it will take to pay off the bonds and hence how long the higher sales tax will be in effect.

Legislative guesses run from 35 to 50 years. But as long as the reprehensible tax on food is in effect, an interminable 5.5% sales tax is bound to represent an undue burden for those of the lower middle class and the poor.

Finally, what benefits will accrue to us in Williamsburg, York County and James City from the monies collected? Again, no one seems to know, though Rapp contends that only 13% of the cash will find its way to us. The only local project listed in the bill is the widening of route 64 up to the James City/New Kent line.

There is no doubt that the entire peninsula is feeling a transportation crunch and that we are in dire need of improved highways, additional tunnels and a high speed rail system. Yet decisions about issues such as these should not be left to a minority of citizens who may or may not have an inkling as to what’s involved.

This is a job for the legislature. And the first thing they should do is clarify and perfect this bill to the point that there’s a real pig in that poke.