Del. Barbara Comstock takes credit on her campaign website for co-patroning HB 2527 the "transportation plan [that] passed this year, which was the first significant transportation plan in years." There are two Non-Truths to this statement, which I'm going to assume are deliberate: 1) There was no HB 2527 during the 2013 session of the General Assembly; and, 2) Comstock made a big stink about voting against the truly historic 2013 session's HB 2313 which is, as I word-process this blog, filling the Commonwealth's transportation coffers.
But let's get back to 2011's HB 2527. One of the features Comstock voted for was granting authority to the Commonwealth Transportation Board to issue Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle, or GARVEE bonds, which essentially borrow against revenues from future federal transportation funds. Let's not forget that Governor "Borrow & Spend" McDonnell and Del. "Borrow & Spend" Comstock -- "support[ed] a 2011 U.S. House Republican proposal to reduce transportation money pending in the U.S. House, despite estimates by some that it could cut funds by 30 percent in Virginia." (Washington Post, McDonnell supports proposed federal cuts to transportation, July 13, 2011)
All of this to say that Del. Comstock would like to have it both ways. Appear to support transportation solutions for her Northern Virginia neighbors while eschewing a reliable source of transportation funds that she voted against six months ago.
