GOP Watch

Bill Howell re-writes history

Posted by Greg on Thursday, August 02

Speaker Bill Howell’s office released a statement today, passing the blame on abusive driving fees that don’t apply to out-of-state drivers:

“I am surprised by today’s holding in the Henrico County District Court that Governor Kaine’s Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to the Comprehensive Transportation Funding and Reform Act of 2007 is unconstitutional.”

The Speaker went on to say that his caucus would “consider legislative remedies so the law is applied evenly to in-state and out-of-state drivers, as we always intended.”

The Speaker may be forgetting that the abusive driving fees that exclude out-of-state drivers were introduced by members of his Republican majority – and he himself voted for it. (HB1563, 2005)

In fact, the sponsors of those bills even acknowledged in floor debates that they excluded out-of-state drivers.

Del. David Albo, speaking on the floor in 2006, said, “The weakness of this is someone coming from New Jersey and blows through Virginia and gets a charge of reckless driving doesn’t have to pay…”

Now in the middle of an election, the Speaker is hoping to re-write history and pass blame to anyone he can think of.

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