The Virginia Supreme Court ruling, that declared the regional taxes as unconstitutional.
The Virginia General Assembly may be called into a special session to address the funding of transportation in the Commonwealth.
The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) will create another expensive layer of government bureaucracy.
The RTA should be renamed the Regional TAXATION Authority. It unfairly burdens Hampton Roads with state responsibilities and represents an enormous tax increase for our region.
The RTA is actively planning the contruction of toll booths on I-64.
Click here for more information on proposed toll projects.
If you enjoy tolls, taxes and fees, you'll love the RTA!
Instead of building an entirely new government organization, the legislature needs to go back and find other, more efficient options to help resolve our transportation problems. We do not need to create another big, government agency.
There are other, much more effective and fair options available for funding our statewide transportation requirements.
The fees were passed in 2007 year as part of the first comprehensive transportation funding package in 21 years. They are paid on top of existing fines and are forecast to yield about $60 million annually for highway maintenance. The new surcharges were enacted as "civil remedial fees" instead of increased fines so that the revenue could be devoted to transportation. State fines in Virginia are constitutionally restricted to educational uses. Fees, however, can only be collected administratively and can't be enforced nationally as fines can. The Department of Motor Vehicles ensures collection by suspending the Virginia licenses of people who don't pay up, thus exempting nonresidents.
Those fees and taxes include:
1. A $10 Vehicle Registration Fee
2. A 1% Initial Vehicle Registration Fee
3. A $10 Vehicle Safety Inspection Fee
4. A 5% Sales and Use Tax on Automotive Repairs
5. A $0.40/$100 of value Grantor’s Tax
6. A 2% Motor Vehicle Fuels Tax
7. A 2% Local Rental Car Fee
Click here for a web link to the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.
Click here for a web link to the final legislative bill authorizing the RTA.
Click here for a list of the House Delegates who sponsored the RTA.
Click here to see how the legislature is responding to citizens.
Exorbitant 'remedial fees' unfairly target in-state drivers