Abusive driver fees: Original goal still one to aim for

The News Virginian / News Virginian
Published: January 12, 2008

The long commonwealth nightmare that is abusive driver fees is almost over, finally. With all of the zeal of starstruck teenagers crowding a concert stage for a closer look at the latest pop icon, state lawmakers are tumbling over one another in a race to produce repeal bills. Onetime fee proponent Gov. Timothy M. Kaine stands pen in hand, ready to ink the concept into oblivion.

Of course, there is the little problem about the money. Kaine and his compadres on both sides of the aisle had hoped the fees would produce $65 million annually for road maintenance. The fees inspired torches-and-pitchforks rage among Virginians, but produced only about half the money our leaders in Richmond had projected.

So now where to go for that $65 million- Well, it starts with taxes, naturally.

Our own Sen. Emmett Hanger - never a fees fan - has proposed raising the state's gas tax by 2 cents a gallon, a move that could raise $100 million annually, according to his estimates. Sen. J. Chapman Petersen is sponsoring a similar bill. It would be the first increase of the state's gas tax in two decades. Currently 17.5 cents a gallon, the state's tax is the 15th lowest nationwide. The increase proposed by Hanger would drop Virginia to 24th lowest.

Paying more for gas is not a pleasant prospect anytime, particularly now. We pointed out in an editorial last week that AAA Mid-Atlantic has estimated that Virginian households will spend an average of $332 more this year on gas than last. Some experts say the price for a gallon of regular unleaded will hit $3.25 this year. Further, the economy is on the verge of slipping into recession.

But Hanger's proposal is hardly a bank-breaker. Virginia households log an average of 10,574 miles driven each year, according to government statistics. Some quick math, based on cars and trucks getting an average of 20 miles to the gallon, shows that households would pay an average of $10.60 more per year if the tax went up by 2 cents a gallon. Most of us can afford that.

Almost forgotten is a bill proposed by Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax, that would keep the fees and eliminate the primary bone of contention among Virginians - that the fees on felony and misdemeanor driving convictions applied only to in-state drivers. Albo's bill would put out-of-staters on the hook, too. That element carries with it an array of new logistical challenges.

Albo originally hatched the fees idea as a way to make roads safer by cracking down on dangerous drivers while also providing more road maintenance money. The concept has been deemed a failure, in part, because it failed to achieve results on the first half of the equation. Road fatalities topped the 1,000 mark last year. But condemning the fees on that point hardly seems fair. Six months is a short time to expect such an initiative to produce meaningful results.

Count us among a handful of observers willing to give Albo some credit for crafting a plan that would have shielded most drivers from shelling out more money to the state. The fees' most significant flaw, to our thinking, was one of competing interests. Had they succeeded in making roads safer, they would have produced less money, meaning that lawmakers eventually would have been left searching for revenue alternatives anyway.

Hanger's proposal would fix the immediate problem by providing money for roads, but we chafe at the idea of lawmakers reaching further into our pockets. Albo might well have been right in thinking there must be a better way. We hope what amounts to a stinging defeat this time around will not preclude him and others from continuing to look beyond the parameters of the timeworn tax-and-spend box.