James W Hazel

James W. Hazel: Transportation Funding Plan Is Defining Vote

Political conventions and primary campaigns are in full swing across the state and that means political rhetoric is at a high at the expense of common sense. Several candidates, mostly self-styled Tea Party Republicans, are attacking GOP leaders for supporting Governor Bob McDonnell’s transportation funding plan enacted this year. Don’t listen to them.


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Bob McDonnell signs transportation funding legislation

Gov. Bob McDonnell today ceremonially signed Virginia’s Road to the Future (HB 2313), the state’s first comprehensive transportation funding plan approved in 27 years.


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Gov. Bob McDonnell: Major transportation projects moving forward

Gov. Bob McDonnell announced on Thursday that the Commonwealth Transportation Board advanced over $150 million in long-sought transportation improvement projects at its meeting in Richmond yesterday. These projects are being funded as a result of the Governor’s 2011 Transportation Funding and Reform Package.


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Broad bipartisan support for McDonnell budget, legislative amendments

As the 2013 General Assembly session draws to a close, the overwhelming majority of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s 2013 legislative agenda passed with strong bipartisan support, leading to the passage of the first sustainable and long-term transportation funding and reform package in 27 years, and sweeping K-12 education reforms. The House of Delegates and Senate of Virginia approved 88 percent of the amended bills the governor sent down.


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Bob McDonnell: Wide support for amendments to transportation bill

Throughout the 2013 General Assembly Session, nearly 60 transportation and business groups representing a diverse cross section of industries and associations in all parts of the Commonwealth endorsed Gov. Bob McDonnell’s Virginia’s Road to the Future transportation funding and reform plan. The organizations listed below have now endorsed the governor’s amendments to make the legislation easier to implement and to address legal concerns about the bill and are urging the General Assembly to move the amended legislation forward.


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McDonnell transportation amendments win bipartisan praise

Gov. Bob McDonnell today completed his review of the major transportation funding compromise passed by the General Assembly in late February, and in the process proposed amendments to the compromise reducing the titling tax increase and also reducing the controversial fee on alternative vehicles by 36 percent.


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Moody’s: Virginia roads plan is ‘credit positive’

The influential bond rating firm Moody’s Investors Services has found that the historic transportation funding plan passed with bipartisan support in Virginia’s General Assembly last Saturday is “credit positive” for the Commonwealth, a major recognition that greatly enhances Virginia’s fiscal standing during a very uncertain period nationally.