And is "local control" a euphemism for passing the buck on a contentious, thankless, and expensive task?

The budget writer for the Virginia legislature, Senate Finance Chairman John H. Chichester (R-Stafford), suggested that localities could have an impact on local transportation by maintaining local roads beyond the traditional one year period. Virginia's Department of Transportation (VDOT) accepts roads into its system one year after their completion. Chichester will announce his own transportation initiative in January. VDOT has a Local Assistance Division.

Echoing this sentiment, Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) has suggested that local jurisdictions take a larger role in road construction, as a way to increase road-building capacity and speed projects.

Given the records of many counties in managing their budgets and and waging internal and often petty political battles, I have to disagree. County supervisors in Northern Virginia typically serve a four-year term and road-building or engineering skills are not on the list of required skills. Any substantial highway project requires multiple impact studies and can stretch to years in planning and building. The idea that local politicians can manage much beyond getting potholes filled strikes me as the work of a dreamer.

I'm no fan of pushing control and responsibility up the chain to the State or Federal government, but they do have a role in doing the real heavy lifting of building and maintaining our road infrastructure. The local guys have historically had quite enough to do, at least here in Prince William County, with leaving proffer money on the table and accepting unusable land from developers for parks and schools.