There have been a number of articles written in recent days about the JLARC report on abuser driver fees. The report (pdf) is a interim one, looking at the first four months of FY2008 and utilizes arrest data from the State Police. This particular report is an easy read, following a question and answer format.
As we all know, the abuser fees were enacted as a part of the overall transportation package included in HB3202. The fees, when completely enacted, are to provide $65 million of transportation funding. Public outcry this summer was focused first on the fees themselve. The attention then shifted to the fact that they do not apply to out-of-state drivers. Once all the candidates – and the governor – promised to figure out how to extend the fees to out-of-state drivers, the issue seemed to die down. After all, shouldn’t the worst drivers among us pay more? And if the fees make the roads safer, all the better, right? Of course, the fact that the revenue stream might not be there if indeed the fees change drivers’ behavior seems to have gotten lost in the equation.
The report raises some interesting conclusions, all of which point to the need to repeal the fees and replace the expected revenue stream with one that is less uncertain. First, there is ambiguity as to which offenses are subject to the fees. The claims and counterclaims of the recent campaign season brought some of this to light. According to the report, the guidance provided by the Supreme Court includes 72 misdemeanors and 28 felonies. However, there are another 46 misdemeanors and 5 felonies which could be classified in the same category. The use of judicial discretion in determining which offenses that the fees actually apply to may very well reduce the revenue.
Another point made by the report is that the collection rates used may be overstated. Virginia used its actual collection rate for statutory fines in estimating the rate for the fees. However, when compared to the actual collection rates in other states that have abuser driver fees, the rate is too high.
The report estimates that some 137,000 drivers’ license suspensions could occur in FY2008 and another 181,000 could occur in FY2009 as the result of non-payment of the fees. Of course, many of these drivers will not exit the roads; the American Association of Motor Vehciles Administrators “estimates that as many as 75 percent of suspended drivers continue to drive.”
The roads aren’t safer, the revenue stream is uncertain – the fees just need to be scrapped.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
The G.A. needs to find other forms of revenue, even if it means increasing the gas tax.
No it doesn’t.
There is already plenty of revenue in the transportation trust fund for legitimate road projects. We just have to stop wasting it on non road uses.
The problem is that 1/5 of it is diverted to subsidies for the Port of Virginia and Mass Transit systems that should be self supporting by now. End those subsidies and that would return $190 million per year to the TTF, three times the estimated Abuser fee revenue.
I am not a fan of the abuser fees; however, I have to admit that they are working. I drive from NOVA to Richmond 5 times a week and find that folks are drivng slower. They are working. You would be hard press to find anyone who is driving over 70 miles an hour.