The Race to Spend More Money
Everyone speeds . . . but what about over-speeding? I bet even in Virginia, the land of bad traffic, it’s still only a minority who regularly puts pedal to metal to drive 20 miles over the speed limit. That’s said to be reckless driving, after all.
But it’s not for the public safety that the state of Virginia began imposing huge, whopping fines, for over-speeding. As much as $3000 per fine. It’s not a huge campaign to get us all to drive better, safer.
It’s a huge campaign to allow politicians to spend more. The many millions expected to be raised this year this way was the Democratic governor’s response to a defeat of his coveted tax increase. The fines are to go to road development. That’s deemed necessary because money previously allocated to roads has been waylaid for other programs.
Then came the huge, honking outcry. One hundred fifty thousand people have signed a petition to repeal the law establishing these whopping fines. The legislature has been inundated with calls and emails.
Delegate Robert G. Marshall, who opposed the law before passage, now leads the campaign against it. “Criminal and civil penalties shouldn’t be created for raising money,” he said. “You don’t want to turn our police into gun-toting tax collectors.”
Even Virginians who don’t habitually over-speed see the out-of-whackness of the excessive fines. And they see the politicians’ greed. The problem, officer, isn’t over-speeding. It’s over-spending.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
