Funds for rural highway projects must be allocated now before lawmakers from urban areas control the state's coffers, according to Del. Morgan Griffith.In other words, this is an anti-urban bill - you know, the areas most suffering from transportation gridlock. Brilliant! Here's what Washington Post's Mark Fisher had to say about this in a article linked by Lowell on Monday:Griffith, R-Salem, predicted Wednesday that by 2012 - due to redistricting anticipated after the next census - 55 percent of the General Assembly will be comprised of lawmakers from Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
Those lawmakers then "will have the power to raid the treasury" to fund the needs of their regions, Griffith said during the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce's Post-Legislative Conference and Luncheon.
What the Republicans in Richmond are publicly billing as a helping hand for northern Virginia is really a last-ditch attempt to maintain the power and money-allocating sway of rural areas that they know they'll eventually lose to the D.C. and Hampton Roads regions.I'd like to see Jeannemarie Davis, Ken Cuccinelli, and their fellow Republican Northern Virginia Senators explain their votes now!