Thursday, July 19, 2007

Virginia's "Civil Remedial Fines" Saga Continues

I first mentioned the State of Virginia’s newest taxpayer threshing machine legislation here, and then followed that up with this post, and now this morning, in the New York Times, I read this.

“You have no idea how angry people are,” said Delegate Robert G. Marshall, Republican of Prince William County, who did not vote for the bill that included the new fines and is leading the call for a special session.

C’mon, Mr. Marshall, I’m pleased to see you did not vote for this legislation, but you cannot seriously state that Virginia delegates had “no idea” individuals living in Virginia would be angered by this legislation.

Though I’m incredulous of Mr. Marshall’s statement, above, I will give him a passing grade for stating the following.

“Criminal and civil penalties shouldn’t be created for raising money,” Mr. Marshall said,...“You don’t want to turn our police into gun-toting tax collectors. They’re supposed to be officers of the peace, nothing else.”

Of course, we cannot leave David B. Albo (R-Fairfax), one of the main proponents of this egregious legislation, and potential private profiter from this legislation, out of this post, as he always is spouting off some ridiculous statement, or inadvertantly highlighting a reason why political groups are so dangerous to us all as individuals.

Delegate David B. Albo, Republican of Fairfax County, a main proponent of the high fines, said that a one-cent increase in the gasoline tax would generate about $50 million a year, but that replacing the fines with a higher gasoline tax would undermine the transportation financing bill that was passed.

“It took two years to get all the different groups, from Realtors, to developers, to citizens groups, on board,” Mr. Albo said. “If you take away one of the fees from one group, every other group is going to start saying they want the entire transportation bill reconsidered.”

Do you fully grasp the implications in that last statement?  I do, and I stated the following in a recent unrelated post.

When individuals deal with one another on strictly an individual to individual basis, in most cases peaceful transactions result.  Yes, this is not true when an individual robs another individual, whether at gunpoint or via dishonest actions, but in the main, individual to individual transactions yield peaceful results.  It is only when individuals group up, and cast aside their individuality in favor of group think, that conflict occurs.

Good luck, Virginians.

High Fines for Speeding Anger Virginians

Posted by John Venlet on 07/19 at 04:34 AM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Page 1 of 1 pages