Barely two weeks after they came into effect, Virginia’s abuser fees are already being “reassessed”:
RICHMOND, July 12 — Virginia Republican leaders, faced with growing opposition to the “abusive driver” fees that went into effect July 1, said Thursday that they will consider scrapping some of them when the General Assembly convenes in January.
The fees, some of which exceed $1,000 per infraction, were part of a transportation plan that lawmakers approved this year. They were designed to raise millions of dollars each year for road and transit projects by imposing surcharges onto the fines for Virginia motorists convicted of serious traffic offenses, such as driving under the influence.
But because of what legislators call an “error” and a “mistake,” the fees also can be assessed on motorists who are convicted of less serious offenses. The surcharges did not receive much attention when lawmakers approved them Feb. 24., but the reaction has been overwhelmingly negative since Virginia residents learned about the fees this month.
“As a part-time legislature, we will make mistakes, and we will have to correct them,” said House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem), who wants to revisit which misdemeanors the fees cover.
In addition, there’s a petition drive to eliminate the abuser fees entirely:
A coalition of anti-tax activists and advocates for the poor also has started an online petition drive calling for a special session. The group wants the General Assembly to eliminate all of the new fees, not just those for Class 3 or 4 misdemeanors. As of Thursday, more than 1,200 people had signed the petition. Another petition received more than 36,000 signatures.
Sherry D. Sherry of Leesburg, who helped organize the petition drive, said the fees could trap drivers with limited incomes in a cycle of debt. She noted that someone convicted of a first-time DUI will have to pay $750 a year for three years.
“I am not trying to defend someone who gets a DUI, but I just know if someone gets a ticket and wants to rehabilitate their life and they work in a low-salary industry, this ticket will put them in a hole they will never climb out of,” Sherry said.
You can sign the petition yourself here.
July 18th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
The online petition that is calling not only for the complete repeal of the new ‘abusive driver’ fees (aka Civil Remedial fees), but also for the Virginia Legislature to convene a special session by September 30, 2007 to repeal the fees is located at:
http://www.Ipetitions.com/petition/VAtrafficfees/
The citizens of Virginia do not want to wait until the regular session of legislature in January 2008 for politicians to ‘review’ the fees. We want them to call a special session before the November elections and completely repeal HB3202 that enacted these fees.
Gov. Tim Kaine has already said he will not call a special session, so the citizens of Virginia are asking the Senators and Delegates to call the special session.
You can use the above link, or go to:
http://www.Ipetitions.com search “VAtraffic”
In reality, you can get a ticket, pay the fine, pay the new fee for three years, AND also end up paying a per point penalty for 3 years for the points on your record caused by the ticket. This exceeds double jeopardy.
Failure or inablity to pay will cause suspension of your driver’s license.
This can impact someone’s ability to find or keep a job, and for people with security clearances, this could cause revocation of their clearances and prevent others from being eligible for security clearance.
The suspension stays on your record for 7 years, increasing your insurances costs and in some cases, even affecting your eligibility to obtain loans, mortgages and other financing.
The potential dominoe effect could be catastrophic for thousands of hard working citizens of Virginia. Young people starting their careers, college students, low and modest income families, and citizens on fixed incomes face potential economic devastation and ruin: for traffic violations.
The punishment certainly seems to exceed any measure of ‘reasonable’.