Oct 11 2008
You need a lot of friends to run for office
Today I got the second signature for the petition to get my name on the ballot, just 123 more to go. I have discovered that most of my friends don’t live in my district and are not willing to move so that they can vote for me. The our friends that I do have that live in the district are hiding from me. I’m hoping to get a few more signatures tomorrow at church and then I’m going to have to go out and meet people.
There is one person that I do want to meet. John M. Palatiello, he’s the executive director of America Moving Forward. It’s a national coalition for public-private partnerships for impoving the infrastructure. He wrote a very interesting article in the paper about how to fix the problems with the roads. Virginia and the Federal Goverment are both running massive deficits in their transportation budgets. Basically, we can’t afford to build the roads that we need. Mr. Palatiello suggests that we let private companies build some of the roads and allow them to charge tolls on those roads and the government will then supervise to make sure that the tolls aren’t too high. That’s the idea in a nut shell. I think that’s a pretty good idea. I also think that we need to expand public transportation. Around DC, there is the metro system, a combination of buses and subway. I think we could expand that further out, like to Dulles Airport, a major employer in the area. This should cut down on the traffic on the road, lessening the need to more roads and repairs to existing roads. My hope is that this and other ideas will help get rid of the multi billion dollar deficit in the state budget and then we can start putting more money where it needs to go, like health care and education.
One Response to “You need a lot of friends to run for office”
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I agree that the various governments can’t (or perhaps won’t) pay for roads, bridges, etc. Having a private venture pay the bill will almost certainly lessen the amount of traffic on the roads, because the tolls will make a lot of commutes too expensive. A better public transportation system would probably be a better place to sink the cash, as that would go a long way to reduce private transportation. On the other hand, you have to remember that it takes a heavy-duty crowbar to separate an American from his or her car.