The Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce has joined 16 other major Northern Virginia business groups to call upon Virginia's next Governor and General Assembly "do whatever is necessary" in 2010 to secure significant, reliable transportation revenues “to erase Virginia's crippling transportation deficit.”
Representing 10,000 companies and hundreds of thousands of workers, the Northern Virginia Business Coalition warns that further inaction by the Commonwealth's elected leaders will erode Virginia's long-term prosperity.
"This crisis of congestion is already eroding Northern Virginia's economic competitiveness by impeding the ability of local companies to attract customers and employees, while simply making it harder to conduct the day-to-day operations of business," said Loudoun Chamber President Tony Howard.
After detailing the serious nature of Virginia's transportation funding crisis, the Resolution embraces four fundamental principles:
* Bonds, public-private partnerships, tolls and other currently used mechanisms are part of the solution, but are inadequate individually or collectively to address well-documented needs.
* Fiscal and political realities dictate that the Commonwealth's transportation needs cannot be met without new, reliable revenues in the form of dedicated taxes and/or fees.
* No tax" pledges on transportation funding by candidates for public office are contrary to the public's best interests and Virginia's future prosperity.
* Elected officials must work together in a bipartisan manner to solve this problem.
The resolution is non-partisan and is not an endorsement of any candidate or political party. It is intended solely as a set of guiding principles for elected officials of all parties and offices work together to restore stability to Virginia's transportation program, to ensure Northern Virginia's and the Commonwealth's long-term prosperity.
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Howard - No more taxes are coming from this pilgrim to pay for it. Cut all the waste out of the government and build roads instead of doing environmental impact studies...