The Roanoke Times has joined a justifiably long list of observers appalled by the prospect of imposing punitive fines for driving offenses — fines that will (a) encourage more people to contest their tickets, (b) clog the courts, and eventually (c) start jamming local jails with working-class stiffs who, unable to pay the fines, will lose their licenses and then get arrested for driving without a license. It won’t take long before these flaws are manifest to all.
I take no issue with the Times’ criticism of the punitive fines, or even its endorsement of gasoline taxes as a preferred source of transportation revenue. But I do take issue with its kneejerk characterization of the General Assembly. Writes the Times editorialist: “Motorists can thank the General Assembly’s anti-tax ideologues in the House of Delegates who refused even to consider tax increases to pay for the state’s needed highway improvements.”
Got that? Anyone who opposes tax increases is an “ideologue.”
As opposed to pro-tax advocates who are… what, exactly?
By my recollection, the Axis of Taxes has been agitating just as long and hard for higher taxes as their anti-tax foes have been resisting them. But more successfully. Taxes are going up in Virginia this year, not down — a fact that apparently has escaped the notice of the Campbell Ave. crew. Likewise, if the anti-taxers “refused even to consider” tax increases, what can be said of the Axis of Taxes? The pro-tax crowd has just as steadfastly “refused even to consider” any transportation strategy that doesn’t entail higher taxes: strategies such as congestion pricing, an end to government mass-transit monopolies and, most important, reform of human settlement patterns to encourage fewer and shorter automobile trips.
At least the “anti-tax ideologues” passed legislation that restructures the way in which state and local governments build and maintain roads. The changes, though shamefully under-reported by the press, are comprehensive and far reaching. By contrast, the Axis of Taxes never relinquished its monomaniacal advocacy of tax-build, tax-build as the solution for all transportation ills. With the exception of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, tax advocates never offered one solution that didn’t require mo’ money. Not one.
Yes, the punitive fines are an abomination, and I’m betting that they will be repealed eventually. But they might never have been necessary if the Axis of Taxes and its enablers in the punditry hadn’t taken such a hard line and had thought more creatively about how to improve mobility and accessibility.
