In this morning’s Washington Post, Anita Kumar and Tim Craig have more about the study released yesterday on the effectiveness of Virginia’s abusive driver fees:
The report, prepared by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, paints a picture of a fee system that is almost out of control, with descriptions of some police officers unwilling to write tickets because they are sympathetic to motorists or wary of too much time in court.
Although there was an increase in arrests for driving under the influence, there was an 11 percent decline in arrests for reckless driving, one of the less-serious offenses that trigger the fees.
The report also shows that thousands of motorists are unwilling or unable to pay the fees. As the fees were approved in February, a person convicted of a felony or misdemeanor driving offense has to pay $250 to $1,050 a year for three consecutive years. If the motorist fails to pay, the Department of Motor Vehicles will suspend the person’s driver’s license.
The report estimates there could be 137,000 suspensions because of the fees through the end of June. An additional 181,000 suspensions could occur because of the fees in the next fiscal year. State officials said the projections represent a substantial increase over the numbers of suspensions generally issued, but they could not provide exact figures.
And, more importantly, the fees have not made the roads safer:
Although Kaine and GOP leaders had said that the fees would make Virginia highways safer, the report found that arrests for speeding and driving under the influence have increased in the second half of this year over the same period last year.
Between July 1 and Oct. 31, there were 198 more DUI arrests than in the same period last year. There were also 5,282 more speeding arrests.
The report says there has been a decline in arrests for reckless driving. Some of the drop may be the result of police officers being lenient because they don’t want certain motorists to be assessed a fee for abusive driving, the report says.
But any decline in reckless driving is tempered by data from the Virginia State Police that show the state is on pace to record more than 1,000 highway fatalities this year for the first time since 1990.
All of this comes a month before the Virginia General Assembly convenes for the new session, and the abusive driver fees will be at the top of the agenda:
House Republicans are expected to resist repeal efforts. Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax) has introduced a bill to make the fees apply to out-of-state drivers; currently, only Virginia drivers are assessed the fees. The bill would also limit the offenses that would trigger a fee, rewrite the reckless driving statute and give judges more latitude on whether to suspend a license.
House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) said the transportation package, which was designed to increase roads and mass transit funding by $1 billion annually, could unravel if legislators push to repeal the fees. He said some delegates want to get rid of the regional taxing districts in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia, which account for the bulk of the funding in the transportation plan.
“If you start taking out one piece, why can’t you take out that second piece and then the third piece?” Griffith said. “Before you know it, all that hard work that created the largest increase in transportation funding in history is going to unravel.”
Sounds fine to me.
