Before we go raising taxes for a bloated government to pave over the Commonwealth by taking more money from people already finding it tough to get by, shouldn’t we first spend the $500 million in new money still around from last year’s transportation bill?

Okay, it’s worded slightly differently, but it’s the same question, and rightfully posed as the bill’s patron, Delegate Phil Hamilton (R-93, Newport News) today cited that same pot of money of new funding on “Richmond’s Morning News with Jimmy Barrett” on WRVA-AM/1140. Despite the House Republican leadership’s public statements about fixing the parts ruled unconstitutional from last year’s bill, it doesn’t seem to have the whole team reading from the same playbook.

New Republican Party of Virginia Chairman, and Delegate, Jeff Frederick (R-52, Woodbridge), told the blog Tertium Quids:

. . . he plans not only to vote against HB 6055, but to make the case, in his role as party chairman, that tax hikes such as this make little policy sense while also harming the GOP brand.

What does it say about the bill’s policy and those well-meaning legislators who want to do something “to make the issue go away” when the party’s chairman, and a colleague of the patron, is adamantly against it? Who was elected statewide most recently and has heard from the grassroots? Not only that, but statewide and regional polling makes it pretty clear: No new taxes will be tolerated, no matter what they’re called, how they’re imposed or what it’s for. Delegate Frederick is not the only one concerned. Senator Ken Cuccinelli (R-37, Fairfax), who also has traveled the state much recently in his bid for attorney general, told TQ:

“I’m very concerned that the Republican tax bill will pass, further enraging our already-dispirited base over what they will perceive as an abandonment of Republican principles — again.”

Partisans may think this split in the ranks is bad. Taxpayers, perhaps otherwise, since it gives us hope of defeating a massive tax hike (however “regional” in nature) — never good, and particularly disastrous in these uncertain economic times. So, we ask again, to House Republicans — and, for that matter, Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, House Democrats, Governor Kaine and anyone else who will have a say in the matter:

Shouldn’t we first spend what we already have?