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bill would rescind fees bad drivers houck drafting legislation for next session

August 8, 2007 12:35 am

RICHMOND--As the legal challenges to the unpopular "abusive driving fees" mount, state Sen. Edd Houck says the fees should be scrapped altogether.

Houck has asked the legislative services department in the General Assembly to draft a bill that would repeal the fees. He said he'll file the bill as soon as it's ready, possibly as early as this week.

"I don't think it can be amended, I don't think it could be changed, I think we need to get rid of the whole thing and start again," Houck said. "We ought to get rid of it, get this out of the courts, and get this thing cleared up and get away from it. I don't think we can fix it, I think we ought to just get rid of the blasted thing."

Houck's bill would repeal only the fee portion of the transportation package, he said.

The driving fees--also called "abuser fees" and "civil remedial fees"--have garnered a huge amount of opposition since they went into effect July 1.

The fees increase financial penalties for criminal driving offenses--offenders could receive fines of more than $2,000 for DUI, $3,000 for felony convictions, $750 for driving on a suspended license, and so on.

Proponents--which included the governor, the House Republican leadership and many legislators--say they intended the fees to apply to serious, egregious driving offenses. But the way the bill is written, it could conceivably also apply to lesser offenses that fall under the reckless-driving statute.

That has gotten the public angry, as has another issue with the fees--they apply only to Virginia drivers. When the fees were going through the legislative process last winter, some variations had the fees applying to out-of-state drivers as well. But Gov. Tim Kaine amended that out of the bill, because it was impossible to enforce. Lawmakers supported his amendment.

By this point, at least three lawsuits have been filed protesting the fees under the argument that because they don't apply to non-Virginia drivers, that they violate the state constitution. And at least two judges last week agreed with that argument, ruling against the fees. Those cases will be appealed.

Houck says that getting rid of the fees altogether is the best solution to both the lawsuits and the thousands of complaints lawmakers are hearing from the public.

"This is the worst I've ever experienced in my 24 years, in terms of the hostile, negative reaction to something that's gone on in the legislature," Houck said, referring to the phone calls, e-mails and angry voters coming up to him in person. "This is across the board. They're just really, really turned off. People are totally turned off by this whole concept, so I think the best approach is just repeal it, get rid of it."

Kaine spokeswoman Delacey Skinner said yesterday that the governor wants to see whether the fees actually lead to safer driving--something he hopes to learn over the next six months before the legislative session.

House Speaker Bill Howell and Kaine have said that they don't support an all-out repeal of the fees. They both have said they'd consider some tweaking of the legislation, but think the main intent of the bill is still a good one.

Houck and many senators from the Senate Finance Committee never were huge fans of the driving fees--they preferred to raise money for transportation by raising taxes. But the House had refused to consider taxes for so long that senators finally agreed to the driving fees in order to get a transportation plan approved.

The Senate did propose, at one point, its own version of the driving fees, but Houck said it was much more narrowly focused on the truly bad drivers, and thus would have raised much less money than the fee plan eventually approved by both houses.

Houck would like to see a special session called to repeal the fees, although Kaine and other legislative leaders have said that isn't going to happen.

What others have said is that the legislature will revisit the issue in its regular session that starts next January.

But to reach next January, the legislators must first survive this fall's elections--all 140 seats in the House and Senate are on the ballot, and voter anger over the abuser fees has some wondering how much of an impact that might make at the polls.