Back in 2003, Virginia added one dollar to the annual fee that residents pay to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The primary purpose for the additional fee was to help finance the ceremonies surrounding the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown colony, which took place earlier this year.
Now that the ceremonies are over and the year is about to end, Governor Tim Kaine is saying he wants to keep the fee in place:
RICHMOND, Dec. 12 — Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Wednesday that he wants to keep the $1 fee that was added to the cost of vehicle registration primarily to help pay for the Jamestown 400th commemoration even though the celebration is over.
In the past week, several prominent Republicans, including Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R), have said that the fee should be eliminated since Virginians were told it would end with the Jamestown festivities.
But Kaine (D) said he wants to keep the fee to help pay for new tourism initiatives and the Department of Motor Vehicles.
“It is a proposal I will make to the legislature,” said Kaine, who said he will reveal more details when he unveils his budget Monday.
Kaine’s proposal, which requires approval by the General Assembly in January, has become fodder for anti-tax activists and other conservatives who say that the fee is a prime example of government becoming addicted to certain revenues.
“The fee passed specifically for this commemoration has no justification for continuation,” said McDonnell, a likely candidate for governor in 2009. “This fee must be allowed to sunset as originally scheduled, in order to maintain the public trust.”
What a radical concept, a government fee that actually ends when the government promised that it would.
