LeMunyon Pushes Back on Tolls

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2012

Contact: Marti Meersman
Phone: (703) 264-1432
Email: deljlemunyon@gmail.com

LeMunyon Pushes Back on Tolls

Richmond—Delegate Jim LeMunyon (R-Fairfax/Loudoun) pressed the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority (MWAA) yesterday to find alternatives to using Dulles Toll Road tolls to fund completion of the Dulles Rail Project. MWAA operates the toll road and sets toll prices.

MWAA’s Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Rountree, and Greg Whirley, Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) made a joint presentation about Dulles Toll Road tolls yesterday afternoon before the Transportation Accountability Commission, of which LeMunyon is a member.

According to information presented to the Commission by MWAA, traffic volume on the Dulles Toll Road has decreased 10 percent since 2009 as tolls have increased.

Insider Politics and Unions are Taking Our Tolls

Overview
History of Urban Transit
Six Problems with Rail Transit
Six Myths of Rail Transit
Private Transit Solutions

"The Government Accountability Office has shown, for example, that buses can provide service as fast and frequently as light rail at a lower operating cost and for about two percent of the capital cost."    Randall O'Toole

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How Insider Politics Saved California's Train to Nowhere

The high-speed rail line may never be built, but it will save a few Democratic seats.

The more people read and heard about the train, the more they disliked it. A string of Field and Los Angeles Times polls this year have shown that voters would block the train by a two-to-one margin if it were put up for a referendum. In 2008, 55% of voters approved the rail bond.

9 R's What went wrong?

A public input session is just that, a public input session and a poll of people who are in no way connected financial, has no value, none. It is not the equivalent to a public referendum or a ballot referendum. 


If this is an assertion that some members of this board want to cling to, then let me remind them that what will happen when they look out at a group at a public input session who is there to demand full funding of their pet project. 


Supervisor Letourneau and anyone else who wants to assert the public has spoken on Metro, insults your intelligence. Supervisor Suzanne Volpe and the four other pro-rail supervisors denied the public an opportunity for a true referendum. They also voted together to stop discussion and negotiation of the Higgins "Terms for Considerations." 

No to Corporate Welfare Because...

Davy Crockett vs. Welfare

From The Life of Colonel David Crockett,

by Edward S. Ellis (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1884)

Crockett was then the lion of Washington. I was a great admirer of his character, and, having several friends who were intimate with him, I found no difficulty in making his acquaintance. I was fascinated with him, and he seemed to take a fancy to me.

I was one day in the lobby of the House of Representatives when a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its support – rather, as I thought, because it afforded the speakers a fine opportunity for display than from the necessity of convincing anybody, for it seemed to me that everybody favored it. The Speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett arose. Everybody expected, of course, that he was going to make one of his characteristic speeches in support of the bill. He commenced:

"Mr. Speaker –

What Do Metro and the Redskins Have in Common?

Just Another Day at the Office Focusing
 on Core Government Functions

Judge for yourself but it seems like the money and favors are flowing pretty freely between a tight group of players in both the Metro deal and with this Redskin deal. 

When did Redskin game tickets, tours of facilities, and visits by Skins personnel become a part of Loudoun County government? Scott York is one to ask about that.

I don't buy the idea that if Bob McDonnell or Scott York say something is good for business then our tax dollars should go out the window knowing it has absolutely nothing to do with what  we pay taxes for. 

The day after the big Metro vote, Chairman York wore his #13 Loudoun Hounds jersey to work.

Loudoun's Metro Future is Certain

Now that the votes have been cast there are some people who just won't let it go. What is their problem? It is over folks! Let it go!

Well no, it really has just begun for Loudoun. But we have a window to the future called Fairfax County, if we just look across the border. However keep one thing in mind. While Loudoun may be able to brag about a high average income, Fairfax County's economic base dwarfs Loudoun County's economic base. Note that much of the economic development in Fairfax and Loudoun came before they were shackled to the Metro, go figure.

For Loudoun, the Metro is like the Titanic 2 and it just set sail headed for a terrible fate. Kenedict Reid untied the rope and pushed it off. He and a few have lifeboats reserved but not us.

What's Not to Love About Metro?

According to WaPo:

Rebellion on the Green Line: Passengers flee stalled Metro train

 By Miranda S. Spivack, Published: July 4

It was getting to be stifling hot in the Metrorail cars stuck between Prince George’s Plaza and College Park on Tuesday night. With no power on the Green Line train, there was no air conditioning.

And even more upsetting, there seemed to be no plan to get passengers off the train.