"It's in the interest of every single Virginian..."

For decades, rural Virginia and the Washington region have clashed over issues as diverse as Metro funding and gun control. That clash -- between urban and rural, liberal and conservative, rich and poor -- lives on. And it confounds Northern Virginians sitting in traffic for hours each day.

You can say that again; just ask anyone who lives in NOVA whether or not they feel "confounded."  But transportation isn't just confounding Nothern Virginians.  It's also frustrating and dividing the Republican Party of Virginia, as Marc Fisher points out in another interesting article on "Virginia's growth wars."  The most interesting part of Fisher's article, in my opinion, comes courtesy of our old friend Del. Dave "Planet" Albo (R-42):

Albo is breaking with the rigid anti-tax crowd because he smells a Democratic sweep in the fall, and because he and a growing number of his colleagues realize that good old RoVa -- the rest of Virginia -- is simply not going to agree to statewide tax increases for transportation.

"Southern Virginia is never going to give us the money," Albo says. "In Southwest, transportation is maybe the sixth or seventh most important issue. You can't ask them to jump on the tax sword for issue number six."

So Albo is proposing a bit of a trial separation between NoVa and RoVa, asking the rest of the state to let us create our own transportation authority. We decide what to build, we hire the contractors and the widely loathed state Department of Transportation never touches a thing.

Although I find Albo's analysis interesting, I ulimately disagree with him that Virginia should undergo any sort of separation, "trial" or otherwise.  Just as America is one nation, Virginia is one state.  And the fact of the matter is that there's a 99.999999999% likelihood that Virginia will remain one state for the foreseeable future.  Which means, of course, that we're all in it together, that we will sink or swim together.  So, let's ditch the talk of trial separation, puh-leeze!

Of course, all this doesn't mean that Virginia FEELS like one state to many of its citizens.  And all this doesn't mean that everyone's content with the current state of affairs between NOVA and RoVA.  For instance, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly correctly points out that Fairfax County keeps only "20 cents for every dollar in tax receipts it sends to Richmond."  In part, this is due to the fact that NOVA is far richer than ROVA. As the Post article explains:

The economic disparity between the Washington region and the rest of Virginia has long been a sticking point in the General Assembly. Rural dwellers see a region so wealthy that they can't imagine sending their money north.

Is there any way out of this situation, or are we at the point of the chess game known as "stalemate?"  Maybe, but first let's hear what Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds (D-Bath) has to say on NOVA vs. RoVA:

"A gentleman from Lunenberg County called me up to say, 'I don't want my taxes to go up so they can build roads in Northern Virginia,' " said Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath). "I said, 'Who do you think is paying for your schools?' Right now, the economic engine that has been driving Virginia has serious transportation woes. It's in the interest of every single Virginian, no matter where he or she lives, to fix that problem."

Deeds is absolutely right that it's "in the interest of every single Virginian, no matter where he or she lives," to fix transportation and the other problems faced by our Commonwealth.  And, as former Governor Mark Warner would say, we must fix these problems by moving "Forward, Together."  What's the alternative, after all?  Moving "backwards, separately?"  No thanks.

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