If you are a Virginia cyclists sign this petition.. http://www.petitiononline.com/va3202/petition.html ..If you live in Virginia, you've no doubt heard about the BS "Civil Fees" our legislature voted to saddle us with. As of July 1st, for many traffic violations, we have to pay non-negotiable, exorbitant (and possibly unconstitutional) civil fees, in addition to normal fines & court costs. The judge cannot reduce the fees and they are in the thousands of dollars...The legislation clearly states that the purpose of the fees is generate additional revenue for the DOT. (In other words the gutless politicians were afraid to enact a tax increase, so they decided to place a large burden on certain motorists, figuring they wouldn't challenge their actions.)Steve

 

The courts here are imposing certain cost, fees, fines whether you committed the offense or not. The mindset seems to be 1) Assumed guilty. 2) You were cited for something so you MUST be guilty of some variation of that. 3) And even if you're pure as fresh snow "we still had to sit here and listen to you whine so that will $950 in court costs and we'll waive the fine" "No your Honor the Clerkie Lady chimes - you can only reduce the fine by this much" So it still costs me 60% of the original fine! If you take any other route other than paying the catalog fine - you incur huge expense defending yourself or bigger bucks retaining counsel.

They don't admit that it fills their coffers but all their gear is newer than mine, the have retirement plans, they have health insurance and dental insurance and maternity leave and I ******* pay for all of it before I pay the same for my own family. Government is too GD big, too much expense on the people and businessmen.

Burn the box - I'm done!

 

well heres a match! thats why i am an anarchist. honorable men dont need laws! live by a decent code and take responsibility for your actions. it is out of control. anyone know where to start? freedom cannot be legislated.

 

Nuhawk... that's just ridiculous... guess they never heard of due process. Oh wait, they're lawyers... they do know what due process is... they just don't give a ****.

 

Just checked the site... over 25,000 signatures in the last 24 hours! Don't tell me we don't recognize BS in this state.

 

Bull sh|t!!!

I'm on it!

 

The people might be heard after all...http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ne...nG=Search+News

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/we...lo.html?ref=us

 

You guys made the FoxNews start screen this morning! More than 130,000 signatures. Keep up the drive! I think these Democratic officeholders who have delayed the repeal in a special session this summer have sealed their political fate for later. These guys are going to pay with their political lives and so be it.

The most ridiculous part is that people from out-of-state do not have to pay this crazy fine schedule because the morons in the state house don't have the mechanism to enforce payment across state lines.

This is a bad law thought up by weak minds.

 

Agreed nuhawk.The Gov. Tim Kaine was on TV last night surrounded by legisators saying how despite the outcry they still like the law & penalizing "bad drivers". We'll keep after them!BTW, when Caine runs for Pres. in a few years just remember, he's a leftist!

 

To view these fines and fees our VA state politicians have voted in, click on link. http://www.courts.state.va.us/publications/hb_3202.pdf

Hope that this information helps your decision on whether to get involved in signing a petition for repealing HB 3202.

Those of you in WVa and MD better be on the watch out for these coming your way as well!

 

More to read and decide:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...071900890.html

 

They've gone from saying it targets - repeat offenders - to saying - bad drivers - to now calling them - abusive drivers. Pretty much name-calling, I'd say. I mean who wants to defend abusers! The marketing & spin is really kicking in now. I'm all for getting the drunks off the road, etc. And they have always had the means to do this. This is akin to the ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control Board) here in VA. The state exclusively reserves the right to sell all hard liquors here in VA thru their own State run stores. Cutting down on alcoholism is a mixed bag when the stated coffers depend on selling the demon spirits!