Yesterday, the House of Delegates overwhelmingly passed a bill to repeal the abusive driver fees it had put in place only a year ago:
RICHMOND, Jan. 22 — The Virginia House of Delegates quickly and quietly voted Tuesday to tweak last year’s landmark transportation package by repealing the costly, unpopular fees on dangerous drivers.
The proposal, which goes to the Senate, would require Northern Virginia residents to pay sales taxes on car purchases directly to the state instead of through dealers, a move the state Department of Transportation says could leave buyers standing in long lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
With no discussion, the bill passed 95 to 2. It does not say where the $65 million that the fees were supposed to raise annually would come from.
House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) said he voted against the bill to keep alive the idea of charging higher fees to drunk drivers and others who commit felonies while driving. The fees range from $750 to $3,000 and are assessed on drunken-driving and reckless driving convictions.
Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax), who has been one of the strongest supporters of the fees in the House, voted for the repeal after he was not able to pass his own bill and an amendment, which would have kept the fees but also applied them to out-of-state drivers, among other changes.
“I gave it my best shot,” Albo said. “I promised my constituents that I would not support a bill that applied to only in-state drivers and let out-of-state drivers off the hook. I had to live up to my promise. . . . Without an ability to fix it, we’re left with only one choice, to repeal it.”
Senator Albo, that’s what Virginians have been asking for since the summer.
