At a recent NAACP candidate forum, did Mudslide Mark Dudenhefer try to walk back his support for toll lanes by suggesting that he “had no vote on HOT lanes”? Was he now trying to suggest that he didn’t support them? Not quite. What he did was further reaffirm his strong support for them. He now claims that they will be a big boon for jobs.

The only big boon will be for the foreign entities that will now control our “public” roads. That’s right, we will now be paying foreign companies (i.e. Fluor-Transurban) for the privilege to use our “public” road system.

Worse yet, it’s taxpayers that may be left holding the bag. Assuming that the I-95 contract is similar to the Beltway one for HOT lanes, if not enough toll payers use the HOT lanes it will leave Virginia, and taxpayers, on the hook in providing financial compensation to these foreign entities. If carpooling increases, taxpayers will also be on the hook and have to pay.

If only Mudslide Mark afforded the same “safety net” to constituents in his Stafford County supervisory district, maybe those families affected by a recent landslide wouldn’t be left out in the cold. You see there are those who fund his political campaigns and those that do not.

You see Mudslide Mark has no interest in conducting a top-to-bottom investigation of the Stafford County permit office that can’t seem to find the inspection of a retaining wall for homes that have seen the ground below them steadily slide down a hill; or, in the developer who is avoiding answering questions on the construction of these homes.

This should come as no surprise, as Mudslide Mark wouldn’t want any sort of oversight to get in the way of business (or his campaign assets). “Oversight is just a buzzword for more government bureaucracy getting in the way of business,” said Dudenhefer.

Mudslide wouldn’t want oversight of a foreign company running our public road system getting in the way of there profits – would he? I’m sure that he wouldn’t be too concerned with making sure that traffic wasn’t being manipulated in any way to assure that a foreign company wasn’t squeezing every dime out of Virginia taxpayers.

Based on what has been purported, I have serious reservations about HOT lanes in Virginia. According to the Washington Times, “Virginia taxpayers are on the hook once again if, between now and 2087, improvements are made to free, non-tolled roads in the vicinity of the toll lanes. These ‘noncompete’ agreements ensure that the toll-road company will enjoy a monopoly at taxpayer expense because surrounding roads will grow increasingly congested in the ensuing eight decades. In other words, free roads will be neglected and not expanded to create congestion that will force motorists into tolled lanes.”

I suppose Mudslide Mark is ok with foreign companies enjoying a monopoly at taxpayer expense, so long as his campaign assets continue growing. It’s also no wonder why Mudslide has long opposed the indefinite postponement of toll lanes on I-95. Build, baby, build!

It’s bad enough that Stafford County raised the personal property tax on everyone’s vehicles by 25 percent, but now Mudslide is potentially asking a commuter who wants to avoid gridlocked roads to pay upwards of $33,280 each year. Not to mention that commuters who choose to use these lanes during off-peak times will now be charged a toll. Oy vey!

In the end, Mudslide is dead wrong when he categorizes HOT lanes as a “major part” of a solution to eliminate gridlock on our roads. A “major part” of a solution would be to extend rail within our area and bring more high-paying jobs locally. Simply increasing the volume that our roadways can handle will only increase traffic and not ease it.

As the famous line from the movie Field of Dreams explains, “if you build it they will come.”