Governor Kaine came to Hampton Thursday night to tell us how he proposes to raise billions to build more roads and mass transit.

40 minutes later, he was done and the public got a chance to talk, at which point no one referred to anything he said, about how we're running out of maintenance money, how our tax levels are below most other states or that we will need 40 hours to escape an approaching hurricane with our existing highway system.

No, the ones who got airtime wanted to remind the Governor that our budget is higher than it was five years ago, that the state shouldn’t be buying park land in Stafford County, that the lottery blew a million dollars on a Howie Mandel instant game and that the Commonwealth has no business asking local residents to pay for improvements to a federal highway like Interstate 64.

It was all heartfelt and mostly noise.

Sometimes I wonder why they have town hall meetings.

The elected officials sit or stand there dutifully, nodding appropriately and ignoring most of what is said because they have heard it all and know that at the end of the day, they have to do something and move on to the next so-called crisis.

Over the last few centuries, America has built bridges and tunnels and interstates, all of which increased mobility for a time and eventually filled up with cars and trucks.

But we don’t look back and at the end of the day, some amount of new infrastructure that seems so worth haggling about today will be built and busy; and well be on to fighting over the next set and whose ox will be gored to finance it.

Tim Kaine’s next town hall gathering down here is June 3 in Virginia Beach. Let's come to that one prepared to listen and ask questions about his plan, so at least his time, if not the rest of the audiences, will be well spent.