They also assured us repeatedly that “no one can get an Abuser Fee for a traffic ticket” (this is a direct quote from a recent letter these two sent to their constituents).
Albo has gone even further. In a recent interview on CNN he said that you couldn’t get a $3,000 add-on penalty unless you killed someone in a traffic accident. In the same letter to their constituents, Albo and Rust state that “since 1997, 9,600 people have died in traffic collisions in Virginia.”
At the same time, they claim that “the abuser fee raises $65 million per year,” a critical funding source of the 2007 Transportation Act, which will be used to help pay for transportation projects in our area.
So given these often repeated “facts”—which have also been parroted by the likes of Gov. Tim Kaine (D), Speaker Bill Howell (R-Fredericksburg) and Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R-Roanoke)—let’s us do a little math using the Albo/Rust method.
For argument’s sake, let us assume that every person killed was not the bad driver causing the accident, but universally the innocent victim. Let’s also assume that all of the drivers who caused the accidents lived long enough to pay the add-on penalty. The above assumptions are obviously unrealistic, but stay with me for a moment in order to give the maximum benefit of doubt to the Albo/Rust argument.
Following these assumptions, had HR3202 been in place over the past 10 years, it could have raised $28.8 million or on average slightly less than $3 million per year. This is based on a $3000 fine per death—not per accident!
Yet, the Albo/Rust duo tells us that this bill will raise $65 million per year. In other words, these $3000 add-on penalties will account for less than 5% of the projected revenue.
To put it another way, more than 95% of the traffic abuser revenues will come from smaller fines. If most of these traffic infractions fall under the $1,050 level, one can only assume that they are going to have to collect a lot more abuser penalties from smaller traffic violations to make up the $62 million shortfall.
So when Albo and Rust—and the echoing chorus of mindless legislators—tell you that the add-on penalties only apply to the worse of the worst, don’t believe them one minute. On the contrary, this bill was designed to extract money from generally law abiding citizens who are caught in a momentary lapse committing a traffic infraction.
If you have any doubts about this, check out the recent report in the Washington Times, where a Navy reservist with a clean driving record going to his monthly training drill was cited for reckless driving while driving 20 MPH over the speed limit on I-395 on a Sunday morning. He now faces a $1,050 add-on penalty for the reckless driving charge, which he is contesting on constitutional grounds under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment, since these penalties only apply to Virginians and exclude out-of-state drivers.
So don’t buy into their propaganda folks! If Joseph Goebbels were still alive, our legislators could teach him a trick or two…
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