Out in Warren County, where I-66 meets I-81, the Town of Front Royal is considering taking a stand against Virginia’s abuser fees:
RICHMOND, July 20 — The small town of Front Royal, in the foothills of the Shenandoahs, is taking on what town leaders and many others consider to be the scourge of Virginia.
The council is scheduled to vote Monday on a resolution that would prevent its police officers from enforcing Virginia’s “abusive driving” fees.
If it’s approved, the measure, sponsored by council member Thomas Sayre (R), could set up a legal fight over whether Virginia’s local jurisdictions have to participate in the state effort to collect the fees to help pay for transportation improvements.
(…)
Under the Front Royal proposal, people cited for driving under the influence would still be subject to the state fees. But those charged with certain lesser offenses, such as reckless driving or driving without a license, would not have to pay. The resolution would apply only to tickets written by the Front Royal police. Anyone charged by the Warren County sheriff or the Virginia State Police, which do not come under town control, would still have to pay.
In some sense, this will only be symbolic, since it will not block collection of the fees:
House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) noted that the recently approved transportation bill, which imposed the fees, says the law applies to state drunken driving and reckless driving ordinances as well as “substantially similar local ordinances.” The fees are paid out over three years, so someone charged with a crime that warrants a fee, such as driving 20 mph over the speed limit or recklessly causing an accident, will pay the District Court the first year. The Department of Motor Vehicles collects the fees the second and third years.
“The town may not collect it, but they are going to have to notify DMV, and DMV will collect it,” Griffith said.
But Sayre says Front Royal officials would urge local clerks of court to not cooperate with the DMV.
“By amending our town code, the court clerks are not going to collect the fee initially, so there will be nothing to put into [the DMV] computer,” Sayre said.
Whether the town could get away with such a direct challenge to the state is, of course, another question.
July 21st, 2007 at 4:45 pm
So that’s what we are left with - just “telling them what we think of their fees”? Wow, such strong language, town Attorney Tom Robinette!
Nah, they’re going to repeal them now, just like the petition demands. We can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way, by impeachment, but these obscene and treasonous “civil remedial fees” are going to go.
Mark my words sheeple. There are still a few folks in the state of Thomas Jefferson who WILL stand up to an ABUSIVE and criminal government. In fact, I count over 146,000 such folks - so far. I think there’ll be quite a few more before all is said and done.
tomdesablashow on wmet1160 1 to 3pm
7/21/2007 2:48:05 PM
July 21st, 2007 at 4:48 pm
And, what is all this stupid talk about “obeying the laws”? The laws are bad, real bad. If everyone obeyed speed limits, the highways would be clogged like parking lots. Imagine it for just a second - every single driver going at or below the limit. Instant lowering of living standards would be the result.
Since when does going slower relieve gridlock? It is mathematically impossible, because if too few cars are getting to their destinations, the only way to fix that problem is by increasing one of two things (or both)
One, increase the number of travel lanes, or
Two, Increase the average speed of the vehicles traveling in the existing lanes.
Both have equal effect, but one costs a lot of money, land, and time, and we still do it. The other is free and easy to do, and we don’t even talk about it.
Set the pipe down please, before the government regulates us right off our own roads.
Please remember, those of you who blindly bleat about the law the law the law, enforce the law blahdy blah. When the law is bad, it should NOT be enforced, and we should NOT obey it. The Founders broke the law, so did Martin Luther King. The Jews of Germany should have broken the law, specifically the Nazi weapons law of 1938 - if they had, millions more might be alive today.
Or didn’t you “policy experts” stop to think of that?
Grover Norquist from
Americans for Tax Reform endorsed Ron Paul my show
check the website