Virginia's Abusive Driver Fees Still in Question
Yesterday a judge in a courtroom in the Virginia hinterlands wrote out some nasty doubletalk and upheld a set of draconian penalties Virginia has unleashed upon commuters with jobs in D.C., raising the question once again of why Northern Virginia taxpayers continue to fund a state government run by rural Southerners who hate us and want us to be miserable. Before yesterday's ruling, the fees had been deemed unconstitutional in district courts in Henrico County and Richmond.
Virginia's new abusive driver's fees would range from $750 to $3,000, in addition to previous penalties. The biggest fees are for legitimately dangerous activities, such as drunk driving. The inexpensive $750 offenses include keeping up with traffic twenty miles per hour faster than the pretend speed limit or driving with a suspended license. The fees only apply to Virginia residents.
The Honorable L.A. Harris Jr., in a courtroom just outside Richmond, ruled that the defense had not adequately proven that Virginia residents are the same as everybody else. The ruling left open the possibility for future litigation to show that a traffic law should not target Virginia residents exclusively. The case seems destined to end up in the Virginia Supreme Court, and in the meantime, anti-tax activists have mounted another challenge against the entire transportation bill. Virginia residents have also organized a petition to repeal the fees, which more than 170,000 people have already signed.
Photograph of what you can do about traffic laws by Eli Resnick
In the meantime, Northern Virginia residents are caught between a rock and a hard place by a law that must appear reasonable to Richmond legislators. Richmond residents appreciate traffic enforcement from police officers who want to keep the average Richmond resident safe. Northern Virginia residents, on the other hand, resent traffic enforcement that has functioned as a regressive tax to fund necessary local transportation improvements ever since voters shot down the half cent local sales tax initiative which would have funded such expenses.
Northern Virginia residents who drive also have to contend with D.C. traffic and parking enforcement, which is designed specifically to prevent us from using automobiles to commute to work. D.C. welcomes Virginians with a red light camera immediately across the 14th street bridge and two hour parking zones wherever commuters are employed. A government that actually represented Northern Virginia would help us respond to D.C.'s environmentally sound policy against gridlock by building and improving existing options for us to get to work by bus, subway and bicycle.
Instead, in a time when Metro parking lots fill before 8 a.m. and every legal bicycle lock-up spot is taken, the Virginia government has chosen to demonize commuters in the Northern part of the state and levy a massive regressive tax against workers who cannot afford to be late and cannot afford private underground parking spaces. This has been the trend ever since the otherwise incompetent Jim Gilmore swept into the Governor's office in 1998 with a three word campaign of "no car tax."
Gilmore claimed that because of the way Virginia's neighborhoods are laid out, driving a car here is a human right and not a privilege. Although Gilmore was a state official, and personal property taxes are levied and collected by Virginia's cities and counties, he was largely successful in reducing those revenue streams, and was especially successful in reducing taxes for owners of large fleets of expensive cars.
Cities and counties deprived of a car tax have had to make up for the lost revenue by collecting more traffic tickets. Because of this system, it has become increasingly easy for a safe and conscientious driver to be stopped for driving twenty miles per hour above the limit, especially on highways, where traffic always moves faster than the speed limit, and at municipal borders, where the speed limit often drops by twenty miles per hour as a means of collecting revenue from unwary newcomers.
At a time when the Virginia legislature has a chance to confront our nation's impending oil crisis with sensible urban and suburban planning initiatives to prepare us for a future without automobile dependency, the legislature has chosen to duck the responsibility of creating a lasting solution, and instead scapegoat Virginia's working poor. Currently, one resident has suffered a slight setback in his fight against the new penalties, but even if the state supreme court should strike down the absurd measure, Virginia has once again ducked the real issue. As we all sit in the same gridlock, the possibility of reliable public transportation for Northern Virginia is lost.
Photograph of Oragne Line Train Westbound for Addison Road by Eli Resnick