Engineer and inventor Del. Joe T. May (R-33) has been reinventing himself in the past few years: as a spokesman for Virginia’s transportation troubles with a new vision in mind.
May’s recent run for lieutenant governor, which ended after top state representatives urged him to keep his delegate’s seat, colored some of his work in this year’s Virginia General Assembly, however.
May’s proposal to run light rail from Gainesville to Manassas on a line currently used for freight would take 5,000 cars off of I-66, he said, but some saw it as a political move designed to aid his run for the lieutenant governor’s seat.
"My response to that was, they better hope I have more politically motivated ideas," May said with a laugh last week in his Sterling office. He is the founder of EIT, a company that, in layman’s terms, makes the green control panels that make computers work.
Since establishing the popular Rural Rustic Roads program three years ago, May has begun to make a name for himself as a transportation go-to representative. The Rural Rustic Roads program allows roads to be paved in place, preserving curves, stone walls and trees. Previously, the Virginia Department of Transportation required all dirt roads to become two-lane highways when paved at the cost of $1 million a mile.
NOW, MAY has become one of the state’s most vocal proponents of transit, meaning either rail or bus transportation. The state needs to "reshape our thinking about what’s a proper transportation solution," he said.
Even though the state had $858 million to spend on transportation this year, "we’re still many billions of dollars short on transportation," May said. "We’ve traditionally ignored rail and transit."
May is chairman of the House subcommittee on transportation appropriations, which decides where the money goes.
May’s close relationship with VDOT has paid off for Loudoun in at least one very public way: he has convinced VDOT to consider letting Dominion Virginia Power use Routes 7 and 15 rights of way for the power company’s controversial 230-kilovolt proposed transmission line to western Loudoun.
The fight over Dominion's transmission line isn't over yet, though, and May's still got goals in the race. Many citizens have rallied to have Dominion put the line underground, an option the company has claimed would be far too expensive to consider.
"As we become increasingly suburbanized, there's going to be more and more objection to those towering overhead lines," May said. "As we grow, of course, the requirement for those [lines] skyrockets."
MAY, IN conjunction with state Sen. William Mims (R-32), has started the gears turning toward forcing Dominion and the State Corporation Commission to consider underground lines. During the session, May got permission to have a study done on the feasibility of underground lines. He also presented a bill to deal with the extra cost of putting lines underground (HB 2878).
The bill would allow the utility to form a special rate district to help pay for underground lines. While Dominion has declined to give estimates for all potential underground paths, it did estimate that an 11-mile underground transmission line on the W&OD Trail would cost $100 million.
Residents in the rate district would essentially be trading the preservation of their property value, which would be decimated if an overhead line went in, for an increased rate on their utility bill, May said.
Dominion has yet to present its application to the State Corporation Commission, which will then investigate, meaning there's still time to get the western transmission line underground.
"The process takes a year or a year and a half," May said. "It's not an instantaneous situation."
MAY SPENT a lot of time in the recent session working on what has been his traditional focus: technology. The Virginia Tech-trained engineer introduced a slew of legislation designed to update computer laws, which need to change as fast as the viruses that attack computers.
"The computer industry changes so rapidly, what you write today is likely to be obsolete tomorrow," May said. His legislation, which took aim at programs like spyware that raid personal computers for private information, was written in general terms so it could apply next year.
"Unlike criminal law, you haven't got 400 years of case laws and precedents to draw on," he said.
Not all of May's technological legislation got approval this year. His Online Dating Safety Act (HB 2467), which would have required social Web sites to disclose whether members had submitted to background checks, was tabled in committee, but May was not bothered.
"That was more a statement than a bona fide attempt to pass legislation," May said. "I was trying to raise the awareness level."
He will bring back the bill next year, May said, but in a different form.
MAY IS AN affable delegate who has made a fan of Chairman Scott York (I-At Large). May was one of the Republicans that voted for the state budget last year — an unpopular move that helped bring the General Assembly out of deadlock on the issue.
"I think May and others took a very courageous step forward," York said.
Still, York wanted to know when Loudoun County would get all its transportation needs met.
"I would have to question that if there is enough money in Richmond, how come our road infrastructure is deteriorating?" he said.
Fellow Loudoun representative Del. Richard Black (R-32) is on the House transportation committee with May. While he, like May, favors the extension of Metrorail to Dulles International Airport, he doesn't see the need for a shift away from asphalt that May does.
"I think we have a very robust road network," Black said. "I believe we need to open up the road network in the west because a lot of our work force comes from there."
He added, "The problem is that such a small fraction of people use rail to commute. Free people choose to commute by car to work."