Reichley column: How to pay for reopened rest stops?

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. -- Saturday, my daughter and I took a trip to Busch Gardens for a performance by "The Bangles," whom you may remember by their hit song "Walk Like an Egyptian." It was a scorching hot afternoon but well worth it to see the women rock out. Still, it's a long day trip to Busch Gardens and back, especially with the stop-and-go I-95 traffic adding an extra half-hour to the travel time.

As I drove by the now-opened rest stops on I-95, full of travelers using the facilities, taking a break from the traffic, or getting tourist information and sodas, I remembered that not long ago these rest areas were shut down to save about $9 million in the state budget. I and others argued at the time that this was an unwise way to save money, given how important a bathroom can be to a family on vacation.

It is estimated that 30 million people will use the rest stops this year. That makes the cost about 33 cents per user, a steal when it comes to government programs -- remember the Internet-equipped bus that costs about $171 per rider? Now, we didn't stop on this trip, but we did see some guy who couldn't make it to the New Kent rest mansion (if you've been in that rest stop, you know what I mean), and was doing his business standing just off the shoulder. Erasing that image would easily be worth 33 cents. Fortunately, my daughter was sleeping off the hard job of being a passenger in my car, so that crisis was averted.

Anyway, now that the rest stops are open for business, we still have the problem of how to pay for them. I know it's exciting that, through hard work and sacrifice, and some clever budgetary tricks, Virginia has managed to eke out a small surplus. But the way to tackle government spending is to actually tackle the spending of the government, and when Governor McDonnell pledged to re-open the rest stops, his next step was to figure out how to cut the costs of operations.

The most obvious way to reduce costs to taxpayers is to have the stops generate revenue, like other stops on I-95 run by our northern neighbors. But unfortunately, federal law precludes us from doing anything that makes sense, so unless we can convince our representatives to change the law, we have to get more creative.

One idea being explored is sponsorship deals. While we can't lease out space to a local fast food franchise, apparently we can sell advertising space in the rest stop announcing the McDonalds at the next exit. Hopefully not over the urinals though -- while Busch Gardens was fond of putting little beer-related factoids in their bathrooms, that's not where I want to see food advertising. Apparently we could bundle advertising with street signs to send get travelers off the highway and into local businesses.

Another "cost-saving measure" is less clever: lower the maintenance costs when re-negotiating the contracts but without lowering the maintenance standards. VDOT spokesperson Jeff Caldwell says the agency will ask contractors what they think they could do to cut costs. On the upside, they would certainly be the people who would know what they could do cheaper. On the downside, you are asking people to help you cut their own income. They might not be sufficiently motivated.

Still, that sounds better than the typical government approach of hiring an independent consultant and paying them a million dollars to suggest a half-million in savings. If only we could rent part of the facilities to the consulting firms, and get them to advertise in the bathroom stalls.

Some ideas are not being considered. For example, there's the time-honored and hated approach of pay toilets, which spawned many an urban legend of families passing their children over the stall walls, or fathers getting stuck under the door. Another idea I'm surprised hasn't at least been mentioned given the push for HOT lanes would be to charge tolls to enter the facilities. Of course, that would drive up costs because you'd need to pay the toll booth operator. I wonder if they could sell special EZ-rest passes?

I'm sure there are other ideas about how we can operate our rest stops for less. Obviously, not building rest stops that you can play basketball in (see New Kent Rest-Mansion) would have kept operating costs down. But at least we are trying to find ways to cut government costs, and that's a start.

Charles Reichley has been a Prince William County resident since 1981. He can be reached at criticallythinking@msn.com.