Repeal Of Driver Penalties Possible
Va. Legislators Also Will Consider Immigration Bills

By Tim Craig and Anita Kumar
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, January 10, 2008; A01

RICHMOND, Jan. 9 -- Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine called Wednesday night for a repeal of the controversial new fees on bad drivers and urged lawmakers to carefully scrutinize proposals to crack down on illegal immigration and not succumb to "sound bite" politics.

In his annual State of the Commonwealth address, Kaine (D), who defended the driver fees last year, said they have not improved highway safety or raised the revenue intended to pay for transportation projects since they went into effect July 1.

"We must continue to look for strategies to promote safety on the road," said Kaine, who has been under pressure from fellow Democrats to end the fees. "The abuser-fee idea has flunked with voters, and we should acknowledge it and move on."

Many Republicans immediately embraced Kaine's suggestion, which probably will mean an end to the fees. Thousands of motorists petitioned against them. The fees, which range from $750 to $3,000, cover the most serious offenses, such as reckless driving.

The General Assembly convened its 2008 session Wednesday by ushering in a period of divided control. The Democrats took over the Senate for the first time in a decade, and Republicans kept their majority in the House. Over the next 60 days, lawmakers will consider more than 3,000 bills, put together a two-year budget and try to fix gaps in the mental health system exposed by the April 16 Virginia Tech tragedy.

Kaine asked for a moment of silence to honor the 32 students and faculty members killed by a Virginia Tech senior and to recognize the 28 members of the armed services and three public safety officials who died in the line of duty last year.

Many Republicans are proposing state laws to curb illegal immigration, after locally elected officials in Loudoun and Prince William counties passed such laws. Kaine stressed that the state has taken steps to enforce laws and that he will fight proposals that seem mean-spirited.

One in 10 Virginians was born outside the United States, Kaine said, and foreign companies created 2,000 jobs in the state.

"We cannot afford to let the supercharged political rhetoric unfairly paint a picture of Virginians as a people who are hostile to new Americans," Kaine said.

Republicans plan to push to prohibit public colleges and universities from accepting illegal immigrants, even if they attended public high schools and were brought to the United States at a young age.

GOP leaders also want city and county jails to check the immigration status of detainees and punish employers who hire illegal immigrants. Some conservative Republicans propose going further, with legislation that would prohibit state and local governments from offering services to people who are in the country illegally.

"Our package of reforms will make Virginia a more effective partner with the federal government in the effort to stem the tide of criminal illegal immigration and to ensure that legal immigrants are rewarded with all the privileges of citizenship," Del. Terrie Lynne Suit (Virginia Beach) said in the official GOP response to Kaine's speech.

Kaine, who says immigration is a federal issue, said he will consider proposals, but he noted that Virginia prohibits someone in the country illegally from receiving most state and local services. Virginia corrections officials and police who come across someone undocumented also notify federal officials, the governor said.

"Virginia has done much to pick up the slack for broken federal immigration policy," Kaine said.

"I think the governor is correct when he says the system that the federal government maintains is broken," Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R) said. "But I think he's wrong to say that there is not more we can do in Virginia and, in particular, in the area of criminal" illegal immigrants

Kaine, who has just passed the midway point of his four-year term, urged lawmakers to approve his initiatives, including proposals to boost spending on mental health, expand access to pre-kindergarten for poor children and close a loophole that allows unlicensed dealers at gun shows to sell firearms without performing background checks.

There could be a fight this year over Kaine's proposed $78 billion budget for the next two years. Because a slump in the housing market has slowed revenue, Kaine wants to transfer $261 million from the state's reserves.

Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr. (James City), the newly elected minority leader, said Republicans would try to make Kaine's proposed budget more fiscally sound and less reliant on the state's rainy-day fund and on borrowing money.

"The budget you will see in March will surely be very different from the one you heard about tonight from the governor," Norment said. "And, I promise you, it will be a superior budget."

There is more consensus about strengthening the state's mental health system, a key priority for Kaine and GOP leaders because of the Virginia Tech massacre.

"In the days following the shootings, we mourned together, faced troubling questions and were inspired by the indomitable community on the Virginia Tech campus," Kaine said. "The commitment to healing reminded us that we owe it to the victims and their families to bring light out of the darkness of this tragedy by addressing the problems it revealed."

Kaine noted that 6 percent of Virginians have serious mental illness and that and one in four have a diagnosed mental illness.

Besides increasing spending by $42 million over two years, Kaine spoke about the need to revamp commitment standards and increase oversight of community-based health clinics.

Kaine's decision to call for a repeal of the abusive-driver fees was something of a surprise.

Although the fee proposal originated with House Republicans, Kaine fueled the backlash last summer after he was advised by lawyers to make the fees apply to only Virginia motorists.

Kaine joined many Republicans in defending the fees, even as many Democrats made them a cornerstone of their election campaigns.

But last month, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission reported that Virginia might have to issue more than 300,000 license suspensions over the next two years for people's failure to pay the abusive-driver fees.

And even though the penalties were supposed to make people drive slower, Virginia surpassed 1,000 traffic fatalities for the first time in 17 years.

House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) said that the fees improved highway safety but that he would not oppose repealing them if lawmakers do not want to keep them. "We've got to do something if we're going to take this away," he said. "We've got to do something to improve traffic safety." We can't just let that go away."

In the Senate, where Democrats hold a one-vote majority, nine new members were welcomed Wednesday.

Sens. J. Chapman "Chap" Petersen (D-Fairfax), George L. Barker (D-Fairfax) and Jill Holtzman Vogel (R-Warrenton) were sworn in shortly after noon.

"It's kind of like college graduation," said Petersen, flanked by his wife, three children and more than a dozen members of his extended family. "It's more for family than for you."

He and other lawmakers made their way around the newly renovated Capitol, which was closed in 2004 and underwent a $105 million facelift.

The House convened with four new Democratic members. But Republicans hold a slim majority, raising the prospect of tension with the Democratic Senate in the weeks ahead.

Staff writer Sandhya Somashekhar contributed to this report. For the text of Kaine's speech, go tohttp://blog.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics.