In World Leadership, I introduce the concept of legal infrastructure coherence. This is when laws, regulations, and budgets are all so aligned that politicking is largely removed from the operation of governing a society. Last week’s article looked at a tragedy that resulted from a lack of coherence. Now we turn to a good example of coherence.
Transportation funding in the state of Virginia had long been problematic. Different parts of the state have different needs and they all compete for the same limited highway and transportation funds. Legislative sessions were fraught with debates, heated arguments, logrolling, and other forms of political maneuvering, with every district competing against another. Then in 2013, Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe and Republican House Speaker Bill Howell pushed for legislation that would allocate transportation funds based on a formula. House Bill 2 was passed in 2014, leading to the creation of Smart-scale–a computer system that receives data about five areas of concern (congestion, land use, accessibility, environmental quality, safety, and economic development), processes it, and produces a list of projects and their allocations. In 2016, its first allocation, $1.7 billion, was approved by the legislature. Also that year, it received the STAR award from the Southern Legislative Conference of the Council of States in recognition of legislative excellence.
This is an example of legal infrastructure coherence. Smart-scale uses computer technology to align a budget with legislative priorities and the needs of the people in a non-partisan way. While there is still some discussion about how well the formula works, that there is a formula in the first place moves the needle forward in terms of governance performance. And while the state legislature still has to approve the funds (a good check), it has gone a long way to remove the capriciousness surrounding this issue.
No longer do districts with the most influential representation get their way and those without it get left out. This is an example of the type of governance that will lead in the future.
Reference:
“Virginia Receives Top Honors for SMART SCALE Transportation Process,” Virginia VDOT, 14 Jul 2016, retrieved from https://www.virginiadot.org/newsroom/statewide/2016/virginia_receives_top_honors106027.asp
“Speaker of the House Howell officially announces he won’t seek re-election,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, 20 Feb 2017 from https://www.richmond.com/news/local/government-politics/speaker-of-the-house-howell-officially-announces-he-won-t/article_3ec756a8-9aad-5c24-ac94-dc7dfb890600.html
“Just How Smart Is the Smart-Scale Scoring System?” Bacon’s Rebellion, 30 May 2019, retrieved from https://www.baconsrebellion.com/wp/just-how-smart-is-the-smart-scale-scoring-system/
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