Transportation: Secondary thoughts

Autumn's chill is not the only thing in the air. So is a transportation idea that turns the blood of local leaders to ice: devolution.

Devolution would shift the burden of upkeep for secondary roads in Virginia from the commonwealth to its constituent localities. Secondary roads are those with numbers higher than 600. They include such major throughways as the Franconia-Springfield Parkway in Fairfax and Robious Road in Chesterfield.

Large suburbanized counties have the bulk of such roads and would bear the brunt of devolution, a proposal they would consider an unfunded mandate. Chesterfield, for instance, would need to come up with more than $10 million a year.

To state officials, however, the current arrangement looks like an unfunded mandate that leaves Richmond on the hook for maintaining roads it had no say in creating. The system dates back to the Great Depression, when the General Assembly adopted the Byrd Road Act to take fiscal pressure off struggling rural counties — counties that are, in much of the state, now all grown up.

The history doesn't soothe the feelings of state leaders like Sen. John Watkins, who recently told the Chesterfield Observer that "Chesterfield adds more lane miles of secondary roads than just about any jurisdiction in the state. The county is in many ways acting like a thief and expecting someone else to pay the bill."

Strong words. On the other hand, they would carry more weight if Watkins had shown more leadership by pushing to raise the state's gasoline tax. The failure to do so has left the state with no money for construction and a dwindling reserve for maintenance. Virginia simply can't afford to pay the bill any longer. The commonwealth would not be talking about devolution if lawmakers had let the gas tax keep pace with inflation.

They haven't. And they don't seem to have the sense, or the sand, to raise it anytime soon. They also have not — yet — taken up a formal proposal to devolve secondary-road maintenance. If and when they do, the proposal ought to include a provision allowing localities to tax gasoline as well. That way, at least the localities would have the means to do what state officials won't.