Lichtenstein, Fishwick & Johnson, PLC, a Charlottesville law firm, has filed suit in court. Unfortunately, a judge has denied the preliminary injunction to suspend the fees, however, this does not prevent the lawsuit from continuing.
If you have received a traffic ticket in Virginia that is subject to the new fees and would like to be included in the suit, contact Devon Munro.
Also, do not forget to vote on November 6, and vote against those responsible for the “abuser fees.”
Contradictory court decisions and promises by Republican leaders and Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to fix the fees next year appear to have diminished the anger.Republican leaders even have begun touting the fees, which can provide a penalty of up to $3,000, as a safety feature that has cut down on bad driving.
Full article in Richmond Times-Dispatch
First, let’s get to the polls and make sure the people responsible for this awful legislation pay the price.
Second, do NOT by the Republicans’ and the Governor’s promise to fix the legislation. They made a huge mistake the first time and we cannot trust them to get it right. It is obvious that they fail to see the glaring issues with this legislation. The petition demands REPEAL, not modifications, adjustments, etc.
Third, this is revenue legislation, NOT safety legislation. Legislators only started to tout the “safety” aspect AFTER the public backlash began. There is nothing in this legislation regarding safety. For years, the government and the safety advocates have been trying to tell us that slower is automatically safer, and that is simply not true. Data has shown that when states raise speed limits, accidents and fatalities from accidents DECREASE. Our speed limits are set to low. For those of you who think driving 80 or going 20 mph over the speed limit is “reckless” just because Richmond passed a law saying so, try thinking for yourselves and looking at the available data. This legislation is designed to increase revenue and in the process, it may make people slow down, but slower is NOT the same as safer.
Even if we ignore the speed limit issue, there is no justification for a $1250 fine for a first-time speeding offense. There is no justification for points remaining on a driver’s license for 11 years. There is no justification for additional fees for drivers who receive as few as two tickets in an 11 year period. There is no justification for the huge fines attached to some of the other minor offenses in this legislation.
The so-called “abuser fees” target everyone in Virginia, not just “abusers”. It is bad policy and we need to hold the responsible parties accountable on November 6.
Some of the supporters for the Civil Remedial Fees (“abuser fees”) in the General Assembly, such as Dave Albo, do not have challengers in the upcoming election on November 6th.
Of course, the lack of a challenger does not force a voter to vote for a candidate. You are free to vote for every other race on the ballot and simply not cast a vote in the race for Delegate or State Senator. In addition, you can write in the full name of any person who is not fully on the ballot. WINvote electronic voting machines are used in many parts of Virginia, and this link provides instructions for conducting a write-in vote on WINvote machines. If your county does not use WINvote, you can find instructions for write-in votes on the county’s website.
You can write in your own name, the name of another person you feel is capable of representing your district in the General Assembly, or a gag name as a protest vote (my personal favorite is Mayor “Diamond Joe” Quimby of Simpsons fame).
It is highly unlikely that a candidate will be defeated via write-in votes, however, if an incumbent receives significantly less votes than in previous elections, it will certainly make a political statement and possibly encourage a challenger for the next election.
Please use November 6 as an opportunity to let Virginia’s lawmakers know how the citizens of the Commonwealth feel about the mistake they made by passing the “Civil Remedial fees”. You can find out where to vote in Virginia at the Virginia State Board of Elections website.
In this Bacon’s Rebellion article, Michael W. Thompson claims that the “abuser fees” should be called “safe street fees”. His article comes to some faulty conclusions and you can contact him at info@thomasjeffersoninst.org to correct his writing.
In fairness to Mr. Thompson, he has opposed portions of the abuser fees in past articles. However, I still feel this article mischaracterizes “positive” effects from the fees and fails to address the fundamental issue of VA labeling too many offenses as “reckless driving.”
Here is my response to him:
Mr. Thompson,
My name is Bryan Ault and I’m the one who started the petition against the so-called “abuser fees”.
Your article in Bacon’s Rebellion is full of mis-information. Yes, you are correct that you do need to do something very serious to get the $3000 fee (however, I don’t believe it is as serious as causing a death). However, what you fail to mention is that 1 speeding ticket for going 81 in a 65 now costs $1250, and two such tickets in an 11-year period will result in additional fees on top of the cost of the tickets.
Going 16 mph over twice in 11 years is hardly “reckless”. You neglect to mention all the charges for much lesser offenses that are included, such as driving with insufficient treads on the tires or driving with an obstructive view (an extremely subjective charge, by the way). Read the rest of this entry »
Marty Martinez, Democratic challenger for the 33rd House District, held a press conference today to highlight his opponent’s support of the Civil Remedial Fees. Delegate Joe May (R-33rd District) has voted for the fees in committee or in the House of Delegates a total of 12 times and was a co sponsor of HB 3202. By contrast, Mr. Martinez has agreed to repeal the fees if elected to the House. He is very intelligent and has ideas that should appeal to Virgina’s voters in a bipartisan manner.
For more information, visit the Marty for Delegate campaign site.
I participated in the press conference and I’m attaching a copy of my statement to this post. I will also link to the resulting articles when they are available.
Virginia state Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II (R) is one example of a Republican who is losing support over the Civil Remedial Fees.
“I’m a little conflicted here because Ken is a friend,” said Phil Rodokanakis, president of the Virginia Club for Growth, a vocal anti-tax organization that has pledged not to support any lawmaker who voted for the transportation bill. “But his vote on House Bill 3202 went against what this organization stands for.”
To be fair, Virginia Club for Growth’s objections to House Bill 3202 go beyond the Civil Remedial Fees, but it’s a great example of lawmakers paying the price for this poorly conceived piece of legislation. Unfortunately, VCB’s legal arguments challenging the constitutionality were struck down in VA court. Apparently, taxation without representation is constitutional in the Commonwealth according to the Virginia Circuit Court. An appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court is in the works.
When the government needs a new project, their first reaction is always “how can we get more money from the citizens?” It seems that lawmakers never consider the possibility of working within the budget and revenue streams that currently exist, or the possibility of increased efficiency and/or fiscal responsibility. For example, take this:
$500,000 becomes $77 million for state
West Virginia saved $77 million in one year by “common sense” recommendations. Now, there is no guarantee that VA could save that much, but VA has a larger population and a larger, more active government than WVA. So, it is entirely possible that the $65 million expected to be raised by the “civil remedial fees” could be recovered through more efficient use of existing revenue. I think the Commonwealth owes it to the citizens (read: taxpayers) to find out before hitting us with asinine fees for minor traffic violations.
The second issue behind the fees is speed. In Virginia, going 20 mph over the speed limit or going over 80 mph (which is only 15 over in a 65 mph zone) is considered reckless driving. This is absurd. Certainly there are situations where going this fast is reckless, but the majority of the time, it is not. First, people travel at those speeds all the time- if it was truly reckless, there would be hundreds of deadly accidents a day. But there aren’t. Slower doesn’t necessarily mean safer and speed isn’t inherently dangerous. This is a misconception that has been spread by money-hungry lawmakers and ill-informed traffic safety advocates. In fact, evidence shows that accidents go DOWN when speed limits are raised.
Second, speed limits haven’t been raised since then 1950’s and have not kept pace with the improved technology in automobiles. At the time the 65 mph limit was established, most cars were not capable of going at speeds much faster than that. We didn’t have radial tires or anti-lock brakes or vehicle stability assist or any of the other features that makes today’s vehicles safer and more capable of higher speeds than their predecessors.
Finally, and most importantly, most people do not obey posted speed limits. We all have anecdotal evidence of this, but radio host Tom DeSabla has made a video to prove it (View the video) . When the overwhelming majortiy of motorists disobey the speed limit, the problem is with the speed limit and not with the motorists. If our speed limits were set appropriately, then David Albo’s claim that the civil remedial fees only effect the most dangerous drivers would be correct and there would be significantly less outrage over the bill. Instead, the majority of us could be targeted by these fees, and the majority of us are not dangerous drivers.
The AAA has reversed their previous opinion and embraced the civil remedial fees:
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/19/1939.asp
They are being duped and do not understand that this law is about revenue and not about safety. I’m surprised that AAA is ignorant enough to confuse slower with safer. Here’s a thought: boycott AAA. Roadside assistance is available through most insurance companies and even vehicle manufacturers. With Google maps and GPS systems, their map services and trip planning are obsolete. Refrain from using AAA products and services until they change their opinion on this.
Delegate Brian Moran agrees that the Republicans’ proposed changes to the civil remedial fees do not go far enough. Here is a press release from his office:
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian J. Moran
Leadership for Virginia’s Future
For Immediate Release
Thursday, August 23
Contact: Jesse F. Ferguson, 703.966.2689
STATEMENT ON GOP ABUSIVE DRIVER TAX REVISIONS
~end it, don’t mend it~
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian J. Moran made the following statement in response to today’s GOP Abusive Driver Tax revision proposal. Delegate Moran has consistently opposed stand-alone version of the abusive driver fees in the House Transportation committee and on the floor of the House. He is the author of Virginia’s felony DUI law and a former long-time prosecutor.
Read the rest of this entry »
Virginia Republicans are feeling the pressure on this issue and are holding a news conference today at 10:30 to announce changes to the fees.
More details cann be found in this Washington Post article.
The good news is that the General Assembly is being responsive to the people. The bad news is that they are extending the fees to MD and DC drivers and making it harder for a driver to lose their license, but they are not repealing the fees. I will withhold final judgement until they release more details, but it seems like the GOP isn’t going far enough. The petition demands “immediate repeal” of the fees, and extending a bad policy to more people is not a viable solution.
