In 2002, residents of Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads voted against half-cent and 1-cent increases respectively in the sales tax to fund transportation projects in those regions.

They rejected the idea despite a drumbeat of tax-hike cheerleading by The Washington Post, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, the Newport News Daily Press, as well as heavy-handed pro-tax propaganda from business groups that portrayed the vote as an Armageddon-like showdown between the forces of enlightened goodness and the armies of ignorant malevolence. (This newspaper supported the right of the citizens to make their own choice, whatever that choice turned out to be.)

Maybe those leading the tax-hike charge were right at the time. Gov. Tim Kaine certainly thinks so: His transportation package would impose by legislative fiat essentially the same sales-tax increases on the very regions that said no to the idea by popular vote six years ago.

Times change. Congestion hasn't improved much, and in some areas it might have grown slightly worse. (Actual data show commuting times have not moved more than marginally either way.) Perhaps the residents of the state's two most populous regions are now on board with Kaine's proposal. If the referendums were held again today, maybe people would vote differently. Maybe they would approve the tax hikes; maybe they would approve them by the same healthy margins they rejected them in 2002.

And maybe not. A recent poll shows Hampton Roads residents oppose a regional tax hike by an even larger 3-1 margin. That suggests voters might not be so much on board with Kaine as ready to mutiny against him.

Virginians will have ample opportunity to debate Kaine's proposal -- as well as competing, or complementary, ideas advanced by others such as Del. Brian Moran, head of the House Democratic Caucus. Moran proposes a 1-cent sales-tax increase statewide, accompanied by a new state agency, the Office of Responsible Growth, that would coordinate transportation planning with local land-use decisions -- a point of concern he and House Speaker William Howell apparently share.

Virginians need to hear the full case for every serious proposal, and why each is being made or re-made. But given the results of the referendums six years ago, Virginia's leaders need to heed the voice of the people, too. Some of them might be tempted to ask the governor: "What part of 'no' don't you understand?"