Abuser Fees, Budget Deficits, Pre-K and the Elections



The Jefferson Journal

…a commentary from

The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy

Abuser Fees, Budget Deficits, Pre-K and the Elections

By Michael W. Thompson

8/14/2007 – In August of this election year there is an unsettled feeling among the electorate that hasn’t jelled yet, but you know it’s there.

With the housing bubble beginning to burst last fall and winter, the legislature still added some $700 million to the two year budget earlier this year. Now, there are projections of a deficit of $300 million in the current budget and up to $1.2 billion over the next two years. But candidates aren’t talking about these deficits. No one seems to be talking about reducing the size of government spending to solve the deficit problem. No one is reminding voters that our state budget grew from $48 billion to $74 billion in a short six year period.

Instead of focusing on the deficit, the Governor is promoting a major new entitlement program called “Universal Pre-K” which is a highly expensive and unproven program for all but “at-risk” students. And some liberal groups say this new program will cost over $800 million a year! Budget reality seems to have taken an unhealthy holiday.

And as our legislators began to brag about the new transportation bill that would bring hundreds of millions of dollars to confront the terrible congestion problems faced in our more populated areas and on our major interstate highways such as Routes 81, 64, 95 and 66, “abuser fees” blew up in their faces and have consumed the headlines and political energy of our candidates.

And like the proverbial deer in the headlights, our legislative leaders have taken weeks to effectively respond in a serious way while almost 180,000 folks have signed an on-line petition to abolish these new abuser fees – that’s 1800 angry voters per state House district! Some legislators advocate total repeal of abuser fees while others talk about major changes to the bill. But, at this writing, there has been no truly credible move to convince voters that this piece of the transportation bill will be substantially changed or abolished.

We should remember that these abuser fees were passed for good reasons – to add $60 million to help solve our transportation problems. But they were passed instead of an additional two or three cent gas tax since the legislators did not want to raise taxes. That is the crux of this entire situation.

When the Governor removed out-of-state drivers from the abuser fees, the General Assembly approved. In retrospect that was a huge mistake. Courts are saying it is unconstitutional if out-of-state drivers are not required to pay these new abuser fees. And when it was discovered that additional abuser fees would be imposed even on those not properly using turn signals, it only aggravated the political problems.

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We’re told abuser fees will be fixed but the voters aren’t convinced. It might be time to just scrap the whole abuser fee and design a new credible alternative to add this $60 million to our state’s traffic congestion relief. The Governor could call for a moratorium on enforcing the current abuser fees as we wait for the General Assembly to act in January.

Heftier fines on reckless drivers are a good idea but it should be done in the right way. Instead of jerry-rigging the current system to put an additional $60 million into congestion relief, a new legislative bill should simply follow the current system for speeding tickets. Additional reckless driving fines should be put into the Literary Fund as speeding fines are today under our state constitution to help build schools. And, of course, out-of-state drivers should not be immune.

Our elected leaders need to credibly confront the abuser fee issue so that it is no longer a topic in this election year. There are significant issues facing our voters that should be discussed and debated and not relegated behind abuser fees.

The pending budget deficit and how to handle it is a huge problem that is not being seriously discussed right now. The Governor’s proposed new entitlement program of “Universal pre-K” could become, if passed, a billion dollar government program in a few short years.

Size of government, the growth rate of state budgets, a new expensive entitlement program -- these are huge issues that need to be the major issues of this year’s election – not abuser fees. Hopefully our elected officials will take strong and appropriate action to put the focus of this year’s election where it belongs. Time is running out.

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Michael Thompson is President of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, a non-partisan “solutions tank” in Virginia. The views expressed are his own and do not necessary reflect the opinions of the Institute or its Board of Directors. You can contact him at info@.

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