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If
you’ve driven more than 20 miles over the speed
limit sometime during the last week, raise your
hand. Exactly. What about rolling through a stop
sign or red light? Precisely.
That’s
why even as Virginians hit the highways for the
Independence Day double weekend, their discovery
of the so-called “abuser fees” that take
effect July 1 has been so explosive. The thousands
of dollars in additional fines to be tacked onto
the bill handed to chronic traffic lawbreakers
threatens to come due in a lot of households. No
one will like it when it happens.
That’s
why Gov. Timothy M. Kaine was pretty quick to
suggest in interviews in June that the General
Assembly may want to revisit its recent action on
transportation that purported to put the cost of
dealing with speeders and reckless drivers,
including the accidents, congestion and delays
they cause, more directly on those drivers. House
Bill 3202, as the legislative transportation
package is known, imposes an additional $750 to
$3,000 fee for moving violations and other traffic
offenses that can be assessed in three payments
over 26 months effective July 1. Failure to pay
means loss of drivers license. Official estimates
are that the fees will produce $50 million in the
first year and $100 million a year in the future.
But
Virginians were not only surprised when they began
to focus on the details of the double-shot of
penalties. They also learned that non-Virginians
will escape the extra fees, a circumstance Washington
Post columnist Marc Fisher elegantly
summarized last week.
“Starting
on Sunday, if a jerk from Maryland or the District
drives recklessly in Virginia, he'll be liable for
a $100 fine. But if the jerky driver is a
Virginian, he'll get slapped with an extra $1,050
fine on top of the $100. Similarly, if an out of
state drunk gets caught on a Virginia road, he'll
face a $250 fine if this is his first DUI. But a
Virginian caught in the same act will have to pay
the $250 plus a bonus fee of $2,250.”
These
inconsistencies, inequities to some, arise from
the difficulties inherent in using traffic fines
to fund transportation. In Virginia law, traffic
fines flow into the Literary Fund, which supports
education. So adding fees, not just increasing
fines, was the only way to ensure the money could
be used for transportation. Then keeping score on
what constitutes an “abuser” came down to who
accumulates eight or more points on their Virginia
drivers license. And Virginia, of course, cannot
assign points to non-resident violators.
And
finally, there are the levels of the abuser fees.
Proponents were faced with a dilemma. The pressure
to produce a large amount of revenue for
transportation suggested the fees should be hefty
or that qualifications to earn the “abuser”
label should be low enough to sweep a large number
of drivers into the net. More drivers facing
additional traffic violation fees on top of fines,
however, also could mean more angry voters in an
election year. High fees seemed the better
alternative. Now Virginians are showing that even
thinking about getting hit twice is enough to make
them furious.
“Three-thousand
dollar traffic tickets aren’t the answer to our
transportation problems!” already is an applause
line at candidate campaign meetings of both
political parties. And interestingly enough, what
follows almost immediately are questions about why
the General Assembly dreamt up such a convoluted
scheme instead of just raising the tax on
gasoline. A penny increase in the gas tax would
produce $50 million a year. Two cents would
produce $100 million without any new
administrative costs or driver hassles.
It’s
a real world discussion that mirrors the truncated
discussions of the General Assembly earlier in the
year: Are the benefits and costs of singling out
small numbers of people for large payments, such
as abuser fees, superior to those of involving the
broadest possible public participation in
transportation financing, such as the gasoline tax
user fee? It seems the real discussions are just
beginning.
Long
Live the Eagles
More
important in this Independence Day week
than guessing exactly where in Virginia the
first wretched driver to accumulate eight points
will feel the hammer of justice twice, is the
great success story of rescuing the American bald
eagle. Just removed from the endangered species
list after three decades of protection, the
Chesapeake Bay region now boasts about 1,000
nesting pairs of eagles. From a low point of
only 417 nesting pairs counted in the entire
continental U.S. decades ago, the eagles have
rebounded to an estimated 9,700 pairs. Virginia
alone can claim about 560.
Though no longer listed as endangered, eagles
still will be protected under federal law, which
makes it illegal to disturb, injure or interfere
with normal breeding, feeding and sheltering
behavior. But there remain concerns about loss of
habitat, something protected under the endangered
listing, including further development of private
property where an estimated three-fourths of
Virginia eagles nest. Eagles love waterfront
property even without hearing those radio ads for
land sales.
The late president of The Nature
Conservancy, John Sawhill, once suggested, “A
society is defined, not only by what it creates,
but by what it chooses not to destroy.” This
July 4th Virginians can put the American bald
eagle right up there with the independence,
rights, freedoms and representative government
that our
national bird represents as cause for celebration.
Just remember to obey traffic laws while you’re
celebrating.
--
July 2, 2007
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