July 28, 2009
Contact: Sean Harrison, Campaign Manager

703-388-2420

[email protected]

NEWS RELEASE

COMSTOCK FOR DELEGATE (VA-34)

COMSTOCK WRITES GOVERNOR KAINE RE STIMULUS FUNDS AND TRANSPORTATION NEEDS

McLean, Va.. --  Barbara Comstock, candidate for the 34th House of Delegates seat in Northern Virginia, sent a letter today to Governor Kaine criticizing his recent decision to shut down highway rest stops and underfunding of transportation and suggesting an innovative solution to redirect already received federal stimulus money to better meet the state's current transportation funding crisis.

July 28, 2009

The Honorable Tim Kaine

Governor of Virginia

State Capitol

Richmond, Virginia  23219

Dear Governor Kaine, 

As I am sure you are aware in your capacity as both Governor of Virginia and Chairman of the DNC, Virginia is at the breaking point on money for roads and bridges and even our highway rest stops.  And while you are busy promoting a national agenda for the President, our full-time state needs have not gone away in these tough economic times.  

With your administration resorting to closing Virginia rest stops in order to save $9m out of a $3.5B transportation budget, it is logical for Virginians to ask if this is just politics or good policy.  Too often in these budget crises, safety is, regrettably, one of the first items on the chopping block.  

Rep. Wolf expressed this concern in a recent letter to you where he noted:  “I am deeply troubled by the politics swirling around this issue and all the finger pointing.”  Rep. Wolf also noted that it was your political appointee who apparently cast the tie breaking vote to close the rest stops with the career transportation officials being opposed to this action.  

Therefore, I am writing to highlight another source of revenue that Virginia has received as part of the stimulus which would be better reprogrammed and redirected, to not only keep our rest stops open and keep our citizens safe, but to improve our infrastructure, rather than have these stimulus funds sit unused, or even misused, when they are so needed elsewhere.  

An AP story on July 15, 2009, reported that as part of the stimulus money, states are getting 10 times the usual amount allotted for weatherizing homes, “an increase so huge it has raised fears of waste and fraud and set off a scramble to find workers and houses for them to repair,” according to the AP.  In Virginia, the funding is actually going up 23 ½ times – from $4million annually to $94million!  Your own Virginia deputy director of housing, Shea Hollified, responded to this by explaining that “spending that much money will be a challenge.”

As we are all well aware, spending that $94million for our rest stops and on our infrastructure in Virginia would be no challenge at all. If Virginia kept the weatherizing budget at the current $4m level, there would be another $90m that could be better used elsewhere.  Further, the stated goal of this weatherizing program – energy efficiency – would be better served by relieving our traffic congestion and getting our friends and neighbors in Virginia out of the gridlock.   

The $787 billion stimulus bill, that you supported, was promoted as largely an infrastructure program that would address in large part the neglected roads and bridges around the country and in our state.  Yet, according to reports, only an estimated and disappointing 6% of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act invests in our roads and bridges – our nation’s infrastructure.  

Congestion costs the average auto commuter $1,207 and the region $2.7 billion annually according to the recent 2009 Urban Mobility Report issued by the Texas Transportation Institute.  In contrast, the weatherization program is estimated to only save the limited number of families that will utilize it about $300.  The report indicated that while congestion has been relieved in most every other metropolitan area, our drivers sat an average of 3 hours longer in congestion in 2007 than in 2006.  In the past 25 years, Washington D.C. area travelers have experienced the greatest increase (46) in wasted hours sitting in traffic in the nation (62 hours per peak hour traveler per year in 2007 versus 16 hours in 1982) and this leads to added energy costs.    

In times of crisis, we need to make sure our priorities are focused on the best way we can dedicate our resources to protecting Virginians and spending our tax dollars wisely on the most critical areas for our citizens and working creatively and non-partisanly to that end.  

Sincerely,

Barbara Comstock