Transportation remains a make-you or break-you issue in November’s election, and Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-37) wants his constituents to know where he stands.
Cuccinelli attended the May 10 Burke Centre Board of Trustees meeting, fielding questions about transportation and mental health. The transportation bill that goes into effect July 1, and the recent shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech have brought both issues center stage for many candidates and incumbents campaigning for a November win.
The residents in Burke Centre, a suburban community sandwiched between strip malls and highways, value public transportation and ways to decrease the congestion problems in the region. A new parking garage is under construction at the Virginia Railway Express station there to increase parking capacity for commuters. Trails linking the five Burke Centre neighborhoods to the VRE station encourage walking over driving. And a new road improvement project at the intersection of Roberts Parkway and the Burke Centre Parkway should also enhance the pedestrian-friendliness approaching the VRE.
Cuccinelli voted for the transportation bill that passed through the General Assembly last session, a bill he said gives the region more authority than ever in terms of transportation. There is the authority to raise money here and keep it here, but Jimi Grande, president of the Burke Centre Board of Trustees, doesn’t think the new authority is all that monumental.
"All we’ve really won is the right to tax ourselves, to fix our own roads," said Grande.
But Cuccinelli said that even that is still a big change, since the state has never been willing to allow that in the past. The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority now has the opportunity to vote on a package of new, local taxes. It also has the authority to finance new roads with tolls, which is one way to attack the congestion problem in the region, Cuccinelli said.
"Yes, we bear the cost, but we get to keep it," he said. "Nonetheless, we got a bill through; that’s something I haven’t been able to do since I’ve been in the Senate."
Cuccinelli didn’t vote for the governor’s amendments though. He said he didn’t like that Gov. Tim Kaine (D) shifted some of the money away from roads and moved a lot of money away from Northern Virginia.
"He reduced our take and he also increased the diesel fuel tax," said Cuccinelli. "Frankly, that affects the inflation on everything we’ve got."
THE STATE’S general fund grows by about $1 billion every year, Cuccinelli said, so he thinks more of that money should have been used "to build more." One thing he is worried about is the Dulles rail project. The dollars for that project, whether it ends up a tunnel or above ground, "just isn’t there." He said studies have shown that not doing anything at all would result in less congestion in 20 years.
"I’m concerned about that project sucking every penny that we got out of Richmond last session," he said. "I’m hoping wiser minds will prevail and they cancel that project."
Some residents are concerned about that too. Kevin Morse, a Burke Centre resident concerned about transportation projects, said he’s worried not enough money will be left in the bill for more pedestrian improvements, like the one he advocated for at the intersection of the Roberts and Burke Centre Parkways.
"I’m concerned about our future transportation needs," he said to Cuccinelli.
The Northern Virginia component of the overall transportation bill is just a start though, Cuccinelli said. Several ways and formulas are in place that will come up with the $400 million Northern Virginia component, but "legislators will continue to tweak it in coming years," he said.
As for mental health, Cuccinelli said it’s an area he’s worked on for years. He had a bill last session that he said would have made it easier to involuntarily commit mentally ill people, but it didn’t pass. Since the Virginia Tech incident last month though, Cuccinelli said he thinks more legislators will support similar bills in upcoming sessions.
"I think it’s an issue, and it’s about time that Virginia address it seriously," said Mary Cortina, a Burke Centre resident.
What many people don’t realize though, said Cuccinelli, is that the Virginia Supreme Court has ongoing commissions that are researching the area of mental health. Studies and reports should be completed by the fall — a time frame he said will "have an effect in next year’s legislation."
"This is an area of law going on already, [Virginia Tech] has brought an urgency to it," he said. "There are things some of us had trouble fixing in the past that I don’t think we’ll have a problem with now."
Opportunities exist for the state to carve out exceptions to rules like the privacy of mental health information. It’s very difficult to move any kind of health information around though, he said, and even if an exception is made, doctors and nurses are reluctant to cooperate because they’re so used to keeping the information classified.
"Even with clear exceptions in the code, medical providers are paranoid about turning over information," said Cuccinelli.
Another hurdle is getting past the increasingly tighter restrictions on personal information because of identity theft. There’s one area legislators want more restricted, and another they want exceptions for, so "it makes things a lot harder."
"The only step legislators can take is to change the law," he said.