It was a news flash on the order of "plane lands safely" or "dog bites man" when a coalition of business interests dependent on road construction recently came out in favor of a tax hike to pay for road construction.

Among the groups signing a letter to Gov. Tim Kaine: the Virginia Ready-Mixed Concrete Association, the Associated General Contractors of Virginia, the Heavy Construction Contractors Association, and the Old Dominion Highway Contractors Association.

Real-estate interests, chambers of commerce, local-government representatives, and a smattering of other groups (e.g.: a hospital association, the state fire chiefs' association, and the Virginia Education Association) signed on as well.

That's like the D.C. City Council passing a resolution in favor of the Redskins winning the Super Bowl. What else should anybody expect?

Still, the coalition might be right about the need for road money.

Virginia's gasoline tax is not pegged to inflation, so every year it loses a little more value in real-dollar terms. Higher fuel-economy standards are coming down the road, too, which will offset the increasing number of road-miles driven from a revenue-collection standpoint. And Virginia does have -- pardon the cliché -- "unmet needs" in road construction. A reasonable case for raising the gas tax to address those concerns can be made.

The General Assembly will have a chance to visit the subject next month when a special session on transportation convenes. The topic also should receive a healthy airing this week when Kaine holds town-hall discussions to push his own proposal, which he will unveil at noon today.

Raising taxes to build more roads offers only a temporary solution to a short-term crisis. It is the equivalent of giving a fat man a bigger belt. For long-term solutions, the commonwealth needs to come to grips with its counterproductive land-use policies -- such as zoning mandates that separate home, school, work, and shopping by wide distances that only cars can traverse. That involves far more work than can be accomplished in a special session, however; several years might be required merely to begin the process. But the commonwealth needs to start thinking hard about it now.