Friday, January 27, 2006

Republican legislators Rally Around Kaine's Proposal for More Local Control Over Growth

Leaders in the House are joining Gov. Tim Kaine in calling for " more flexibility in controlling development."

Looks like the mountains are coming to Mohammed; legislators are finally listening to Northern Virginia voters.

Kaine singled out traffic as one of the premier issues during his successful fall campaign for governor where he won traditionally Republican votes in the outer burbs of Washington, DC.

During the election, Kaine promised voters he would fight to give "local governments more power to slow growth, require traffic studies and coordinate their long-term plans with state transportation planners," as the Washington Post reports.
"There is a very high expectation from citizens that we would do something this year, and I'm glad we're moving in that direction," said David L. Bulova (D-Fairfax), a freshman delegate who campaigned for new local powers over development. "There's been a lot of resistance in giving local governments the authority, but in walking door to door last summer I got a lot of feedback from constituents who got it."

With Democrats picking up seats, Republicans have decided they better get onboard the popular winning train of controlled growth, although some die-hard Republicans are still resisting.
My thoughts are that localities already have the controls they can use," said Del. Riley E. Ingram (R-Hopewell), chairman of the House committee that has defeated attempts to give localities more control.

But take it from the good professor at the school of policy at George Mason University, who is giving Larry Sabato from the University of Virginia a run for his money in the field of punditry, Mark J. Rozell, who had this to say:
Anybody who's interested in staying in political office has to be onboard on this issue . . . or at least be on the record as being onboard with this issue."

And if Kaine is able to move those pesky mountains, maybe we won't have so many poor saps stuck in traffic in the future; all the while strengthening the brand for Democrats.

Comments:
Yeah, this is very good news.

I was sorely discontented with the preponderance of no-tax sentiment floating around the VA blogs.

This is simple, VA transportation is sick, Kaine's got the medicine.

If you want ignorant children and decaying roads, get the hell out of Virginia Politics.
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?