As usual, Marc Fisher hits the nail on the head, this time with regard to the exorbitant "fees" that Virginia will start imposing on in-state drivers beginning July 1:
...I agree with the new law's critics that there's something distasteful and even unfair about smacking the state's own residents with these fees while letting out of state drivers carry on as usual. And I think it's essentially dishonest to rely on sneaky fees like this to raise the money that should be raised with a straightforward tax increase, in this case, by hiking the gas tax.
"Sneaky" and "dishonest" are exactly the right words for what House Republicans did this past spring on transportation. And now, we're all going to start suffering because of it. But wait, at least SOME people are going to benefit from these new fees:
..There's a big bonanza of fees awaiting those law firms around the state that are selected to go chase after the highway miscreants who don't pay their fines in a timely way. And guess who's connected to one of those special law firms: Why, it's state attorney general Bob McDonnell, who wants to be your next governor! McDonnell's old firm, Huff, Poole & Mahoney of Virginia Beach, has an exclusive contract to go out and collect those unpaid fines; the firm, according to the Virginian-Pilot, earned more than $2 million in collection fees last year.
[Note: Fisher apparently has backed off his charges against Bob McDonnell.]
That's right, when you get slapped with a $1,000, $2,000, or even $3,500 traffic fee in coming months, you can comfort yourself with the thought that Bob McDonnnell - and Dave Albo - will be personally benefiting from your largesse. All because, as Fisher writes, House Republicans "couldn't bring themselves to raise taxes in any significant way, so they took the low, sneaky road and created nasty fees like these traffic abuser fees."
That, in a nutshell, is why we need to replace these flat-earth, Republican ideologues with sensible Democrats who won't enrich themselves at your expense.
[UPDATE: Fisher has amended his article to say:
"McDonnell, as his staff was quick to remind me this morning, does not give out those contracts and has no financial connection to his old firm. But still, it doesn't exactly breed confidence in the system when lawyers who go on to work for the people of Virginia appear to be in the position of creating law that could help their old friends.
Looks like we're mainly back to the Albo-Rust $3,500 fees...]
So don't just blame the flat-earth Republicans.
Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest. Having said that, this bill was overwhelmingly a Republican deal, and I am not going to absolve them of their 90% responsibility for it, including the outrageous traffic "fees" and the complete scam that this entire transportation monstrosity happens to be.
As Lowell said, he and I (and many others) would have preferred no bill to this one, but clearly Kaine felt something had to be done this year.
So is Kaine to blame? Somewhat, but as Lowell says most of the blame is on the Republicans for simply not allowing alternative funding options to come into play.
This is not a Demo-Repub debate. It is bipartisan shitty government.
From today's WaPo:
Speaking Tuesday on WTOP radio, Kaine said the fees will allow the state to ease gridlock while encouraging motorists to drive responsibly.
"I don't have the ability to give driving instructions to 7 1/2 million Virginians, but hopefully the prospect of stiff fines will make people drive right," said Kaine, who has been pushing for the fees since taking office last year.
The problem with this situation is that it has nothing to do with safety - it's all about funding and Republicans avoiding responsible funding methods. Sure, a side effect may end up being safer roads (a good thing IMO), but these insane fees are in place only so the Republicans can dance down the street singing "I didn't raise taxes".
I find it hard to believe that many Republican legislators would support $3500 fees for simple traffic infractions unless they were desperately trying to avoid something else - namely taxes. How often do you see Republican bills that dump multi-thousand dollar fines on average people for relatively simple mistakes?
Why do you think so many of us were so vehmently opposed to the Republican transportation monstrosity since we saw what it was going to be?
The Law of Unintended Consequences is going to wreak havoc here. Judges will suspend traffic fines on low income offenders because they know the abuser fees are going to kick in. These fines are an important source of revenue for the county that will start to dwindle. Meanwhile, millions of dollars in taxes, I mean abuser fees, collected in NoVa will be sent to Richmond to be redistributed to SE and SW Virginia. There will be a huge incentive to either flee the police or contest tickets in court, creating more high speed chases on the roads and grid-lock in district court.
And the traffic in Fairfax County, especially around Gerry's TOD complexes, will just continue to get worse.
Wonderful.
Would be interesting to see the Democrats and Republicans responsible for approving this turkey.
Would also like for you to identify how our local officials will increase our taxes. Maybe this is not as exciting as the discussion about increase fines....but all of us are going to pay through the nose for these taxes...guilty or not.
HB 3202 Transportation funding; authority to certain localities to impose additional fees therefor, report.floor: 02/24/07 Senate: VOTE: (21-Y 18-N)
YEAS--Bell, Blevins, Cuccinelli, Devolites Davis, Hanger, Hawkins, Martin, McDougle, Newman, Norment, Obenshain, O'Brien, Quayle, Rerras, Ruff, Stolle, Stosch, Wagner, Wampler, Watkins, Williams--21.
NAYS--Chichester, Colgan, Deeds, Edwards, Herring, Houck, Howell, Lambert, Locke, Lucas, Marsh, Miller, Potts, Puckett, Puller, Reynolds, Ticer, Whipple--18.
RULE 36--0.
NOT VOTING--Saslaw--1.
That's the Senate, now the House:
HB 3202 Transportation funding; authority to certain localities to impose additional fees therefor, report.floor: 02/24/07 House: VOTE: ADOPTION (64-Y 34-N)
YEAS--Albo, Alexander, BaCote, Bell, Bulova, Byron, Callahan, Caputo, Carrico, Cline, Cosgrove, Cox, Crockett-Stark, Dance, Dudley, Fralin, Gilbert, Griffith, Hamilton, Hargrove, Hogan, Howell, A.T., Hugo, Hurt, Iaquinto, Ingram, Janis, Jones, S.C., Kilgore, Landes, Lewis, Lingamfelter, Lohr, Marsden, Marshall, D.W., May, McQuigg, Miller, J.H., Miller, P.J., Morgan, Nixon, Nutter, O'Bannon, Oder, Orrock, Peace, Poisson, Purkey, Putney, Reid, Rust, Saxman, Scott, E.T., Shannon, Sherwood, Sickles, Suit, Tata, Waddell, Wardrup, Welch, Wittman, Wright, Mr. Speaker--64.
NAYS--Abbitt, Amundson, Armstrong, Barlow, Bowling, Brink, Cole, Ebbin, Eisenberg, Englin, Gear, Hall, Hull, Joannou, Johnson, Jones, D.C., Marshall, R.G., McClellan, McEachin, Melvin, Moran, Phillips, Plum, Rapp, Scott, J.M., Shuler, Spruill, Toscano, Tyler, Valentine, Ward, Ware, O., Ware, R.L., Watts--34.
ABSTENTIONS--0.
NOT VOTING--Athey, Frederick--2.
Note: These votes were not specifically on the traffic "fees," but on the transportation bill as a whole.
You respond to the bloggers.
Thanks for the above.
Go Lowell.
How is traffic in Springfield? In Virginia Beach? Fairfax?
Remind us again where to find a list of delegates and senators who voted for this new law so we can vote against them in November. I say post them outside the traffic courts and at all our polling places!