Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Editorial: Easy fees instead of hard decisions
Abusive driver fees are the type of leadership voters can continue to expect from a Republican majority.
From the RoundTable blog
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Candidates hope voters remain hopping mad over abusive driver fees and will vote against those who enacted them. Trouble is both Democrats and Republicans blame the other. Who's really to blame? The people who think it's good public policy to pay for roads this way, that's who.
House Republicans first came up with the idea of abusive driver fees. It wasn't a terribly horrible idea to think of ways to heap an extra dose of punishment on aggressive drivers who repeatedly flout traffic laws and endanger the lives of others.
At some point, that intent took a back seat to greed: Fees equal revenue -- found money that could be used to offset the massive deficit between Virginia's enormous transportation needs and its paltry revenue stream.
The fees -- along with a "surplus" that has since dwindled substantially and a scheme to pass off the state's responsibility to two newly created regional taxing bodies -- became part of the Republican solution to the transportation crisis.
We said before and since, and will continue to say, that a much fairer and more reliable funding plan would rely on an increase in the state gas tax, which hasn't been increased in 21 years.
That, though, was a complete nonstarter in Richmond. Obstinate Republicans wanted their way. That's why they cobbled together a transportation bill that counts on people driving aggressively to help pay for road maintenance. They didn't do this on their own; the governor and enough Democrats to pass the package acquiesced to this scheme.
Too few legislators knew how desperate leaders had become in balancing their plan: They raised the fees well beyond the initial offerings so that some are as high as $3,000. Nor did those voting for the plan understand that the governor, for technical lawyerly reasons, changed the language so that the fees applied only to Virginia drivers.
This makes people hate the fees on two levels: First the amounts are disproportionately high; second the fees pick on Virginians and let aggressive out-of-staters off the hook. Both are fine reasons to dislike the abusive driver fees.
But those reasons pale in comparison with the greater outrage: This is how the majority party believes fundamental government services should be funded.
"It was an attempt to pave roads with gimmicks and it got figured out," said House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong.
Now everyone is attempting to use it as a gimmick to win election, as if voters can't figure out the real problem.
