As a member of Northern Virginia Transit Authority Jennifer Wexton voted to support a toll of $17 for commuters on Interstate 66. Â She has denied her vote but there is now proof she’s not being truthful. Â How silly for her to think she could lie about it. Â Her opponent, Republican Stephen Hollingshead has the proof and today issued the following press release.
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WEXTON VOTES TO SUPPORT $17 TOLLS ON I-66
Hollingshead Pledges to Oppose McAuliffe Tolling Plan<nbsp;>
Minutes of the October 1 Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) reveal that State Senator Jennifer Wexton (D, Leesburg) cast a vote to authorize the NVTC Chairman to testify to the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) that the NVTC is “excited†about the governor’s plan to charge tolls on I-66 inside the Beltway, which the testimony also refers to as a transportation “milestone†it wishes to “celebrate.â€
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Copies of the minutes and of the draft testimony that NVTC members were asked to authorize are attached, with relevant portions highlighted.
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At the Candidates’ Night at the ADAMS Center on October 9, Wexton’s opponent in the November 3 election, Stephen Hollingshead (R, Leesburg) pointed out Wexton’s vote in favor of this draft testimony, holding up a copy. Wexton responded, calling the claim a “falsehood†— that she had never voted in favor of tolling. Today, the Hollingshead campaign acquired a copy of the minutes of the meeting (attached) that demonstrate the senator did in fact vote to authorize NVTC testimony praising the governor’s plan to toll I-66. The governor’s tolling plan would require commuters from Leesburg to DC to pay $757 per month in tolls — almost double what they pay now.
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“Many 33rd Senate District commuters already pay just over $17 a day to drive the Greenway and the Tollway,†Hollingshead said. “It is ridiculous to ask them to pay ANOTHER $17 a day to prop up a failing Metro system and to build jogging paths in Arlington. I pledge to fight this plan in the state senate — commuters already pay high tolls to support Metro, and confiscating even more of their money to drive on an already-existing road is a non-starter. My opponent has claimed not to support more tolls, but her vote to authorize NVTC support of the plan is evidence she will let the transit cronies have their way.â€
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Virginia’s 33rd Senate District includes portions of eastern Loudoun and western Fairfax counties, and is home to many commuters in Leesburg, Ashburn, Sterling, Brambleton, Herndon, and Chantilly.
Embedded below are the NVTC Consent Agenda for October 1 Meeting (1 page); draft Testimony that commissioners were asked to authorize in the vote (2 pages); and draft minutes of the meeting obtained from NVTC, recording the vote (2 pages).
Wexton should be ashamed of misleading the voters like this, but we know she won’t be. The question is whether the media covering this race at the Loudoun-Times Mirror, Leesburg Today, and Washington Post will call her on it, or be complicit in the lie.
32 comments
Effectively the toll is a tax on clean fuel plate drivers who legally use 66 now. The HOV restrictions are in place but not enforced. If they really want to punish… Err, I mean tax, the HOV violators, why don’t they simply enforce the current laws?
As I suspected, this is more Republican BS. If you actually do some research, you’ll discover that all the Democrats have spoken against the $17 toll.
Which, by the way, only applies to people who aren’t carpooling (at least 2 people).
Get the details.
I don’t even live in VA and it took me less than five minutes to find this out.
Proof? How do you know? You’re looking at a piece of paper that could easily be forged.
[…] the Governor’s $17 tolls because these tolls on I-66 are the Governor’s idea.  She and Senator Wexton can’t make up their minds about these absurd tolls. It’s difficult to go against the Governor of your […]
I’m tired of the far right wing of my party hijacking the political process for their own sordid purposes. What happened to our principles of limited government and free market economics. Automated enforcement of the HOV lanes is the logical solution to the large number of law breakers we currently have.
While I disagree with Sen Wexton on many things, I believe Del Minchew and Sen Wexton are right to want to be part of the process in solving our transportation issues. The “proof” presented here is all smoke and mirrors.. Shame on Hollingshead to resort to such shenanigans. I guess it just goes to show what kind of senator he would be, if elected. All the minutes show is that the the NVTC wants to be involved in implementing whatever plan is arrived at for I66 inside the beltway. If you read the draft (which was likely revised before being approved by NVTC), it says nothing about supporting tolls or what the tolls would be.
Get your facts straight, then we can debate.
Speaking of getting facts straight: Don’t suggest Del. Minchew voted to allow NVTC to proclaim it is “excited” about tolling 66, as Wexton and the majority of NVTC did. Look at the minutes posted above. And the draft testimony was NOT revised before voting, that is the point. If the majority voting for the draft testimony really were against tolls, why didn’t they ask the support for tolls to be removed from the testimony before voting for it? That would be in the minutes — that’s what minutes and formal votes are for. The other possibility, of course, is that Wexton and the majority of NVTC that now wants to claim it is against tolls DIDN”T BOTHER TO READ what they were voting on — they just went along with what the staff wanted. You have to pass it to find out what’s in it, apparently.
[…] also spoke against the plan, including Jennifer Wexton which was something of a surprise since she voted in support of the plan just a few weeks ago. Who knows how she will vote in the General […]
I’m not wild about the tolls but I do wonder what plan the republicans have?
A plan? Heh, it’ll be worse than a $17 toll!
You don’t have to pay the tolls. You can carpool or use the non-tolled lanes, once the tolled lanes start. Even inside the beltway on 66, you can use 50 or 29. And everyone ignores the fact that you can’t use 66 inside the beltway now if you aren’t carpooling so that’s really no change. Been years since I drove 66 inside the beltway in rush hour since I’ve never had a job where carpooling worked. At least with the tolls, I have that option if I’m willing to pay the cost. And if I don’t want to pay, I keep driving the exact same way I have for 20 years.
It is extremely rare for carpooling to work for anyone. Rt 66 is backed up every morning and every afternoon. Outrageous tolls of $34 a day won’t help solve the problem.
again, point missed. 1) carpooling does work for many people. Check the slug lines on 95 sometime and you’ll see that many many people take advantage of the carpooling option. But my point you missed was that the people driving from Leesburg who use I66 inside the beltway won’t be effected at all. If they’re using it now, then they’re already carpooling and they will continue to be able to use it for free if they continue to carpool. And for those of us who don’t carpool, we will no longer be forced to jump off 66 at the beltway and get on 50 or 29. We will be able, if we want, to continue on 66 if we are willing to pay the toll. Again, if you don’t want to pay the toll, you can continue to jump off at 495 and get on 50 or 29 as you’ve (or I) have been doing since the day 66 was opened. As far as the toll lanes outside the beltway, again, if you don’t want to pay, then you have the regular lanes that remain free. If time and speed of travel is important enough, you can pay the toll and most likely get their faster. But nothing is being taken away from you, only options being added for you. Do you drive on 66 inside the beltway now during rush hour? If so, what changes for you? If you don’t drive on it during rush hour, what changes for you?
The larger question is….
Why the hell do people subject themselves to living through this every day? America is a big place….don’t spend so much of your life in a car. You’ll wish for those hours back later.
People usually do it for the jobs and money. If they moved somewhere else they might wish they still had that well paying job in DC. People do what they gotta do.
Part of issue with i66 carpooling are all the single drivers who are exempt from the requirement. As much as 30% of the current traffic is exempt and not HOV2
I believe many people don’t grasp your plain fact that inside I66 non carpooling restrictions are already in place and have been for some time as it has been very sporadically enforced from what I understand and therefore violation summons are infrequent. But your fact is totally correct. Also it might stand as a counterpoint to the belief that more carpooling is an effective tool to combat major artery congestion relief given it’s apparent lack of success inside the beltway on 66 to date. So the next easiest non solution is to go to the tax (poll) to twist the economics to make the travel route non viable for many but drive additional revenue to fund other non private auto based transport solutions that have proved to be just as ineffective in addressing the peak congestion issues as carpooling. There is only one solution here and it involves pain, disruption, inconvenience, eminent domain, and asphalt. Without lane expansion all the rest of this is band aids and taxing schemes. I grant I’m no traffic engineer but also to look at the I66 congestion as two separate issues with two separate inside and outside I66 proposals makes no sense to me either.
The plan calls for changing the current HOV-2 restrictions to HOV-3. If you think maintaining a carpool with 2 members is hard, try 3. What do you do when your third person is sick, or on vacation, or just late? You pay the tolls, presumably. Or you drive on 50, like all the other folks who couldn’t find a third carpooler. You think 50 is bad now, just wait!
The HOV2 to HOV3 change will happen in 2020 and will happen independent of the toll project. That change is required by federal regulations for running HOV on a federal owned interstate. Same for the clean fuel exemption. You will get those changes no matter what happens with tolling.
All the more reason to widen 66 now. It’s been 30 years, and the governor’s plan would effectively put off widening by another 7-8 years. (18 mos. to implement tolling, VDOT then wants to wait 5 years before doing a study to see if their tolling plan is working, and then, just maybe…) The ideological commitment against building roads is why we have literally the worst traffic in the United States.
Are you ok with closing all eastbound I66 traffic at Fairfax drive so they can tear up the tunnel coming up to Rosslyn in order to widen it? That’s 6 month project at best and a year most likely with no traffic going thru. What will that do to your commute? Find an engineer who can come up with way to widen that spot without shutting down the road.
The first step is to get the political will to hire that engineer. Construction always comes at some inconvenience. It may be necessary to use the same roadway for eastbound in the morning and westbound in the evening. I do believe that most commuters would cheer at the prospect of widening the road, and so cheerfully suffer through the inconvenience of construction.
Nobody who lives in Arlington would cheer. They’ve kept it from happening for 25 years and will continue to prevent it. It would cause gridlock during rush hour pushing 40,000 vehicles into parallel roads every day. The hour commute would be 2 1/2 hours. And any accident would make it 4 hours. Not to mention the cost- half a billion dollars projected just for that tunnel section. And another half a billion to widen the rest one additional lane. Where’s that money coming from? The state doesn’t have a billion dollars to spend in one 10 mile stretch of road.
So can I just ask, are you okay with the tolling if the widens happen now?
Basically, Wexton lied. And now there is proof!
Funny, I thought the historic tax increase passed in the 2013 Transportation Bill signed by a GOP governor and enacted by a GOP led VA state legislature was suppose to take care of these type of funding issues. Color me surprised!
GOP lawmakers are never against raising money anyway then can. This holds true for Loudoun, VA, and the country
It is a shame that the establishment GOP is almost as bad as the demwits when it comes to spending money and raising taxes. Record tax revenues into our big government and they are still running a deficit.
actually, they are worse. Over spending on non-essential and unwanted military hardware, support for big business and the 1%while fleecing the rest of us, and more, all while building bigger and more intrusive govt intrusions into personal lives. At least he dems are tryng to move money from where it is t where it isn’t instead of the way around.
“Support for big business and the 1%” sounds like you are talking about Obamanation to me. The rich getting richer and the African American community in a shambles during his reign. The only place the Demwits are moving the money is into their pockets. Just ask the Clintons of the Clinton Crime Family Foundation.
What is Wexton thinking?? $17 tolls is a punch in the face to people just trying to get to and from work everyday. That’s like filling up your tank full of gas every single day just to get to work and back. Wexton has to go! Time for someone with a brain who will fight for the regular guy!
Sure, Wexton doesn’t care if some of us can even afford to take part-time jobs that are going to eat $17 per day out of our pay checks, in addition to the regular cost of gas/car maintenance. She’s doing great. If we have crap-hole jobs that only pay $12/hour, and this eats 1 1/2 hours of work out of a 4 hour day, then (according to Wexton), its our fault for not having more lucrative jobs to support her socialist agenda.
Very poor picture of Wexton