Delegate David Albo has found a way to make more money from your traffic ticket. He has introduced a bill, which has passed the House of Delegates, that would charge you annual fees dependant on the amount of points on your license.

The purpose of HB 314 is to "generate revenue from drivers whose proven dangerous driving behavior places significant financial burdens upon the Commonwealth."

The reality is that this is not geared towards dangerous drivers. This is a ploy to get more money from you. If you have four or more points on your license, you will be fined $100. If you have more than four points, you will be fined an additional $75 per point.

This is assessed annually. If you don’t pay these fines within 60 days, your license will be revoked.

To rub salt into the wound, if you have a reckless driving ticket on your license within the last three years, you will pay an additional $350. Reckless driving could be as simply as failure to observe lanes marked for traffic.

If this bill passes, you can bet that issuing tickets like reckless driving and speeding will have even more emphasis than now.

Please take the time to contact your Senator and ask that they vote "NO" to H.B. 314. This is not about safety. This is about the state making more revenue from tickets. Violators are already punished by paying initial fines, plus ongoing increased insurance rates!

Visit http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform for your state senator’s contact information.

UPDATE: The bill has been "incorporated" into HB 527. I don't know the full implications of that, but it may mean that they are attempting to "sneak" it in via another bill, therefore not have a direct vote on HB 314.

Link: LIS > Bill Tracking > HB314 > 2006 session

 

It amazes me how lawmakes always find a way around the double jeopardy. Specially when it comes to traffic violations. It is perfectly fine to tack on penalties on top of fines on top of fees etc, etc. You've already been punished once for your "hainous crime". They should not be able to punish you again.

 

Thanks for that!!

This is what I sent (thanks for the verbage!):

I have just been made aware of HB 314 to "generate revenue from drivers whose proven dangerous driving behavior places significant financial burdens upon the Commonwealth." This is clearly a case of DOUBLE JEOPARDY! I am absolutely opposed to this. Vote "NO" to H.B. 314. This is not about safety. This is about the state making more revenue from tickets. Violators are already punished by paying initial fines, plus ongoing increased insurance rates! Reckless driving could be as simply as failure to observe lanes marked for traffic. If this bill passes, you can bet that issuing tickets like reckless driving and speeding will have even more emphasis than now. Virginia is one of the MOST TAXED states in the union already, and we can hardly get a new road built! I'm apalled at this bill.

I also passed this along to our local HRclubMINI Yahoo email group, I think there are over a hundred members or so now!

 

Good... spread the word! I have also created threads in the Mid-Atlantic and Central Virginia MINIs forums... which direct people to this thread (to try to keep it to one thread).

Hopefully enough voices can be heard to get the legislature to shelf this blatantly opportunistic bill.

I think a modification of the age old "Do the crime, Do the time" phrase applies here... instead, "Do the crime, pay the fine". That's fine, not fines. A one-time fine. An ongoing and repetitive subscription plan for traffic fines is absolute highway robbery, quite literally.

I'd be less upset if they instead simply increased the cost of the fines, ONE TIME fines that is. Not that I want to encourage it either.

 

um..what he proposes is double jeopardy...that's unconstitutional. You can't make laws retro-active.....

 

That may be true... but they could still amend it to be active from here on forward... or perhaps we are reading it wrong, where it might mean "past 3 years, after bill is ratified" or something like that. No matter the real situation, ANY form of this bill would still be a VERY bad law, IMO... so, even if the current bill is unconstitutional the way it is written, I am hoping that enough motorists out there will send a clear message that we don't want anything LIKE this, ever!

I may hunt for a link to the actual bill... stay tuned.

UPDATE: Added text and link to bill to the first post.

 

rip 'em a new one, son! (Boy, am I glad I live in MD.... )

 

Here is the status of the bill. Lets hope that it just dies in committee. This bill, as written and passed by the house does not apply to driving violations committed before July of 2006

BTW it is now HB527
Although writing to your senator is useful - writing to the Finance committee members is also helpful. Reading the impact statement on the original bill tells you that this is a law instituted in New Jersey. Checking the facts on the success or benefit of the law in New Jersey and whether there have been any challenges is also information that should be shared to the committee members. Are the facts stated in the impact statement accurate?

Asking the press secretary for the Governor for a statement on the governors position would be also be of value. Be forewarned that the current governor ran on a platform of solving transportation issues - and he may well look at this bill as a revenue source toward that goal.

The motivation for this bill may well be from lobbying on the part of the private vendor who performs the collection process in the state of New Jersey. That question should be asked of both the Senate finance committee members as well as the governors office.

Just my thoughts

Status:
01/09/06 House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/06 067923492
01/09/06 House: Referred to Committee on Transportation
01/18/06 House: Assigned to Transportation sub-committee: #3 (Carrico)
02/02/06 House: Committee substitute printed 068923492-H1
02/02/06 House: Reported from Transportation with substitute (15-Y 6-N)
02/02/06 House: Referred to Committee on Appropriations
02/03/06 House: Assigned App. sub: Transportation (May)
02/10/06 House: Reported from Appropriations with substitute (23-Y 0-N)
02/11/06 House: Read first time
02/11/06 House: Committee substitute printed 068277492-H2
02/13/06 House: Read second time
02/13/06 House: Committee substitute from Transportation rejected 068923492-H1
02/13/06 House: Committee substitute from Appropriations agreed to 068277492-H2
02/13/06 House: Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB527H2
02/14/06 House: Read third time and passed House (82-Y 18-N)
02/14/06 House: VOTE: PASSAGE (82-Y 18-N)
02/14/06 House: Communicated to Senate
02/15/06 Senate: Constitutional reading dispensed
02/15/06 Senate: Referred to Committee on Finance

 

Doesn't seem like that bad of an idea to me. :-p

They would have to only fine you for points you get after the law passes, obviously. But that probably wouldn't be too hard. Presumedly every point is already timestamped or else they wouldn't know when to take them off. It would probably be a simple matter to set up a program to scan license info once a year and issue fines for every point on every license applied since the law took place.

Seems complicated, though. If they really wanted more money it seems like there ought to be some way to tack on additional fines at the time of the conviction. Like how long does a point stay on your license? 5 years? Then if you want $75 per point, charge them $75 per point times 5 at the time of the conviction and do away with the silly yearly-billing concept.

That would probably be a better deterrent anyway. ("My ticket is HOW MUCH?")

 

Double Jeopardy only applies to being tried twice for the same crime

However, as written, Virginia cannot do this because of Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution which states:

"No State shall ... pass any ...ex post facto Law,"

That is unconstitutional and will be defeated in the Supreme court because its been tried in the past.

Looks like a way to make money. Does VA still collect yearly excise tax on cars?

 

YES. They did start to bring in a "relief" program to gradually eliminate the tax, but they froze it at one point... the state was losing too much money to go all the way. Since the reductions we DID get remain in place, it's not as bad as it used to be, but it's still there.

More and more I realize how much Virginia is an anti-motorist state. No radar detectors, reckless driving at 80mph (EVEN in a 65mph zone), personal property taxes on cars and now this.

It's hard for me to move out of Virginia as long as I am working here (I hate long commutes), but once I eventually do, there's a lot I won't miss.

 

Well shucks, lets make it voluntary then! Please make your check payable to "Commonwealth of Virginia".

Where I live (Hampton Roads) its a true traffic nightmare, and in my observation of living here nearly all my life, the cops, who have quotas for writing tickets, find some sly way to get people where the signs are confusing, contradictory, or absent, and trying to fight a ticket is crazier and more costly than a season pass to Ringling Bros Circus They know what they're doing, and it isnt about safety!

If it WAS about safety, they'd ban cell phone usage while driving! And hey, since we're all so clumsy and stupid that we need massive, intricate safety laws to protect us from ourselves, eventually we'll be getting fines for not wearing our padded suits and safety helments when we step outside our houses! ok, that was rant material, I admit it

 

As much as I hate paying DCs ubsurdly high taxes - I am so glad I don't live in Virginia - it's becoming the new TAXACHUSETTS :-)

 

True... but at least we don't have speed cameras... YET!

 

What happened to the "Pay per Pound" tax... where speeding SUVs should be fined additionally based upon GVCW? A 20-over-limit ticket for a Porsche Cayenne would be $100's more than that for a Boxster. Its clearly a matter of manueverability.

Personally.... I feel that speed limits should be individually based upon the braking distance of your vehicle. i.e., a car/truck should be limited to a speed by which braking to a stop can be accomplished in under 200 ft. So a car may go 80mph (80-0 braking = 200ft) whereas a larger/heavier vehicle might have to "stay right" due to its limited 60-0 braking/speed.

 

[quote=chows4us]Double Jeopardy only applies to being tried twice for the same crime


This is not completely true. Look at what double jeopardy protects you against (in law books) and it says that you are protected against "multiple punishments for the same offense". They could still get around this in ways though since certain things done to your license is not considered a "Punishment".

 

"DOUBLE JEOPARDY - Being tried twice for the same offense; prohibited by the 5th Amendmentto the U.S. Constitution. '[T]he Double Jeopardy Clause protects against three distinct abuses: [1] a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal; [2] a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction; and [3] multiple punishments for the same offense.' U.S. v. Halper, 490 U.S. 435, 440 (1989).

http://www.lectlaw.com/def/d075.htm
Sounds like punishment for a crime (offense) to me. I dont think traffic "offenses" count for much under this protection but where are the lawyers when you need one???

 

I like the "pay per pound" concept. There really ought to be more of a penalty for speeding in an 8000 pound SUV than a 2400 pound MINI. Heck, I think they should introduce a "small car tax break" where people with cars under a certain size get a federal tax credit. Or maybe free parking in parallel parking zones for small cars... Cities with limited parking space (coughBaltimorecough) could stand to enact something like that.

Anyway, small car ownership and useage should be encouraged.


Rant:

I'd also like to know what's really behind the whole cop ticket "quota" thing. It seems counter productive. Every police speed trap I've ever seen as been on a highway or interstate, which is, I'd say, the safest place to speed and the least helpful place to patrol.

If they really want to be a service to the community, they should look for speeders in residential areas. A 45 in a 35 through a neighborhood seems a lot more likely to kill someone than doing 80 mph up I-95. But the police seem more concerned with following the letter of the law (catching speeders) than the spirit of the law (protecting people).

It would be interesting if ticket consequences for the convicted, and ticket "credit" (?) for the police would be doubled for people caught speeding through residential areas. Give the police more incentive to patrol there rather than highways. Personally, I make a point of sticking to within 5mph of the speed limit on smaller roads, where there's a lot more room for people or cars to pop up out of side streets. But on I-95? Left lane.