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Smoother Roads Ahead

Virginians will see lots of highway paving going on in the spring after an independent audit of the Transportation Department found the state agency has hundreds of millions of dollars in unspent reserves and unallocated federal funds.

That’s great news.

The anticipated splurge does not translate, though, into a long-term transportation funding plan for the state. Virginia still needs one.

State Transportation Secretary Sean Connaugton said last week that he’ll award as much as $900 million in maintenance and construction contracts by the end of the year — much of it for maintenance.

That will cover just a small fraction of the backlog of bridge and road improvements needed around the state, never mind new projects to address worsening gridlock in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell asked for the audit, one of four he ordered of the agency soon after taking over in January from outgoing Gov. Tim Kaine, now the National Democratic Party chairman.

McDonnell used the findings to criticize VDOT’s management under Kaine, who responded that the Republican administration “bragged about the smart fiscal management at VDOT” when marketing state transportation bonds this spring.

Much of the criticism of Kaine revolves around a buildup in transportation reserves at a time when the department was slashing its six-year capital improvement plan because of falling revenues.

McDonnell will use lower cash reserves and implement other cash-management strategies suggested in the audit to free up — he hopes — about $1.45 billion over the next six years.

That’s a lot of money. But to put it in perspective, the state has identified $18.7 billion in transportation needs over the next 10 years.

Each party put its own spin on the audit results, and there was some merit on both sides — best captured, perhaps, by McDonnell’s VDOT commissioner, Gregory Whirley, who was assistant commissioner under Kaine. Whirley had argued against such deep reserves then, yet acknowledged there is a risk now in drawing down the balances — “a risk worth taking.”

That was disputed by Democratic lawmakers, who predicted the agency will be cutting its reserves close.

The governor is sure to win the political argument, though. As McDonnell noted, construction companies are low-balling their bids in this poor economic climate. “There is no better time in the market; people are hungry for work.”

What should not be lost amid the fragments of his transportation initiatives is that all of the pieces together — even including privatization of liquor sales, which is no sure thing — will not add up to the long-term revenue stream Virginia needs.