Abuser Fee-apalooza!

I’m back. I took a few days off, get my stuff together, plan some personal changes, avoid all the hypocritical Republicans and their restroom shenanigans, all that stuff.

But what’s this? In this past Sunday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, all the candidates for the Virginia legislature got to have their say on the “abuser fees,” those outrageous Not Taxes that Republicans came up with to raise the money we desperately need to fund our rapidly decaying roads but without resorting to those traditional means, such as everyone paying for the usage. That would be FAIR. Instead we now have to pay $1,000 to $3,000 for not using a turn signal. Ain’t conservatism grand?!

Anyway on to the pieces. Republican Jimmie Massie, he of the Family Foundation of Virginia, agrees with one of the principal architects of the bill, Speaker Bill Howell. So, in the real world, that would mean he supports the bill. But strangely no. He uses his support of Howell to further the case that we need to reform the abuser fees. He’s joining Howell in jumping of Howell’s own self-created cliff by becoming a staunch opponent of the same bill he staunchly defended. And then strangely he tries, twice, to say it’s somehow the governor’s problem, and that it’s his responsibility to deal with it. Gotta give it to these guys, what they lack in brains, they make up for in balls.

But what Massie really wants is to expand the bill. He seems to believe that the only problem with charging insane fees is that those insane fees aren’t charged enough. He wants even out-of-state drivers fined, never mind the impossibility of that. Here’s my favorite part: ” I will not support any law that does not apply equally to everyone driving on Virginia’s roads.” Fantastic. He talks like a progressive, about equality, but leaves the actual funding of the roads to those miserable swine who have been caught speeding. C’est la égalité, or something.

Here’s what his opponent, Tom Herbert, had to say:

The abuser fees should be repealed and if I am elected, it is one of the first things I will do.

Virginia needs a stable and reasonable funding source to solve the critical transportation problems. The commonwealth’s transportation and infrastructure needs have been ignored for almost 30 years. When Gov. Mark Warner began his term in January 2002, with the cooperation of the Senate and the support of the people of Virginia, he attempted to solve this problem. He was blocked by the incumbent leadership in the House of Delegates who, according to The Times-Dispatch on August 12, know only one word: No.

This standoff continued for five years while congestion on the highways got worse. This year, Gov. Tim Kaine attempted to negotiate a compromise. However, the House leadership’s solution is based on the abuser-fee funding gimmick which at best is only a short-term fix for a long-term problem.

Now, as it is being blamed for the unpopular abuser fees, the House leadership wants to extend the fees to out-of-state drivers. Yet, because of difficulties of collection and billing, the fees will likely remain an unfair burden on Virginians. I will vote to repeal the abuser fees and examine Virginia’s transportation and infrastructure.

Citizens need to consider not only highways, but rail and other environmentally sound alternatives to ever more congested highways.

Reason? Logic? Both anathema to Republicans. Could the choice be any more clear?

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