William C. Flook, The Examiner
2008-01-15 08:00:00.0
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RICHMOND, Va. -

Gov. Tim Kaine on Monday pitched a tax increase on Virginia car sales that would raise revenue to replace the hated driver "abuser fees," an idea instantly met with hostility from Republican lawmakers who have fought off the increase in past sessions.

In Virginia, auto sales are taxed at 2 percent less than the state's overall 5 percent sales tax. Kaine, at a news conference on an unrelated topic Monday, suggested bringing taxes on car sales to the same level as other purchases, just as he did in 2006 and 2007, to help close a growing gap in road maintenance funding.

That gap likely would worsen if lawmakers scrap the "abuser fees" enacted last year as part of a statewide transportation-funding package. The set of new fines on bad or dangerous drivers was projected to raise $65 million a year for the maintenance shortfall, which is now estimated at $290 million. The actual amount the fees will raise is disputed.

"Maintenance is an annual raid on the transportation fund," said Bob Chase, president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance. "Every year, money that's supposed to be going to construction is diverted to maintenance."

Bills that would raise the sales tax died in committee last year. But that was before Democrats took control of the Senate and increased their numbers in the House in the November election, and before the furor over the abuser fees began.

Critics call the fees excessive, as well as unfair because they target only Virginia drivers. At least a dozen measures have been introduced in the General Assembly to repeal the fees.

Kaine said he wouldn't personally seek to have the tax increase introduced this year, but would support such a bill.

An auto sales tax increase, said Del. Tom Rust, R-Herndon, would betray a "huge compromise" reached last year with auto dealers in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, which bore a 1 percent registration fee increase as part of the funding package.

wflook@dcexaminer.com