LTE: Herring's Focus on Metro Misguided

[Editor's note: This letter came in response to .]

Where is the $300 million coming from? It will be taken from Northern Virginia transportation projects.

Judging by his recent letter published April 3, Senator Mark Herring is out of touch with reality. He is very excited about getting a payback on his tireless effort to shift money away from long-awaited transportation projects in Northern Virginia that would do far more to reduce congestion and encourage economic development than Phase 2 of Dulles Rail. Shifting a total of $450 million in Virginia transportation funding to promote a few special interests (unions) under the pretense of toll relief is Herring’s kind of cronyism.

Virginia does not have the money to fund this union perk. Our great Commonwealth has reached its credit limit of $3 billion. The money just isn’t there. Herring only knows one remedy for a problem like MWAAs gross mismanagement, and that is to throw more money at it. This is like trying to put out a fire by dousing it with gasoline.

Dumping $450 million into an MWAA bank account guarantees nothing. They are completely unaccountable to Virginia. Herring has not seen any solid numbers about toll projections because MWAA has not released any. That means the assertion that state funding for Phase 2 of Dulles Rail will buy down tolls on the Dulles Toll Road by any certain amount is speculation at best. 

The transfer of the Dulles Toll Road (DTR) in 2006 to The Airports Authority was done for the purpose of ensuring that the public and the Commonwealth’s interests would be best met. 

This is a quote from the 2006 MWAA proposal for that transfer. 

“The Airports Authority takes responsibility for the Commonwealth’s remaining share of financing for both Phases I and II of the Dulles Metrorail Extension”

These promises are not being kept, and repeated demands to adjust their heavy-handed and wasteful methods are being ignored. MWAA, through poor financial planning and unwillingness or inability to provide sound oversight, is posing a dire threat to the economic stability of the region surrounding the Dulles Corridor.

Please stop funding this debacle and FIX IT NOW.

David LaRock
Hamilton Virginia

[Editor's note: David LaRock is affiliated with LoudounOptOut.com.]