Yet the people heard the subtext, not the text. They heard what they feared: Virginia's politicians are traitorous over-taxers who can't reduce the enormous rate of growth in spending, much less cut funding on anything, always playing around with funds to keep all balls and all programs up in the air . . . all special interests appeased.

So, the general fear heightened. "The politicians will probably siphon funds from these taxes for other projects." And the general cynicism increased. "If we vote for this tax increase, we'll be paying for stuff we've already paid for eight times over."

The measure went down to defeat. Hard.

In 2004, Warner came back, though. With the help of longtime incumbent tax-loving Republicans in the state's senate, he pushed through the largest tax increase in state history. When the House Speaker suggested the tax increase again go to a vote of the people, Warner pooh-poohed the idea as the "Californication" of our sweet Virginia.

In other words, he knew the people wouldn't go along.

Not surprisingly, little (if any) of that whopping tax increase went to help fix the transportation mess.

So when Governor Tim Kaine came into office, he wanted to raise taxes, yet again, to — you guessed it — fund increased transportation spending. But his proposal failed to pass in the legislature. So, he and Albo and a few others pushed through these outrageous über-fines.

The Robber Meets the Road
The new law hasn't worked out so well. In addition to the incredible success of the online petition, local officials are also beginning to balk. Tomorrow, the town council in Front Royal, Virginia, votes on a resolution to prevent their police officers from enforcing the abusive "abusive driving" fees. Can the town legally sidestep enforcement duties? That's not clear, but says the town's attorney, "We are telling them what we think. . . ."

Front Royal Council member Bret Hrbek sums up the public distaste:

This law is a tax increase to help fund road projects, which may be good projects, but if we are going to have a tax increase, we should have a tax increase. We shouldn't use fines to do it. This is one way for us to make a stand to tell the General Assembly and the governor we are not going to participate in robbing our citizens to pay for projects when they are not going to be honest enough to just raise taxes.

The new law is a sign of just how messed up Virginia politics is. A function of modern government as basic as roads gets treated by the state as an add-on requiring extra effort, not basic attention.

It's possible, I suppose, to blame the citizens. Call 'em Cro-Magnons who hate taxes more than mammoths hate fire. But the sophisticates who run the system — people like Albo, people like the governor — don't seem able ever to do the civilized thing, the hard thing necessary: prioritize.

Instead, they nourish every old program, keep adding on more, spend ever more money.

There's something wrong in Virginia, and it isn't the citizens or the drivers. Even Virginians who don't habitually over-speed see the out-of-whackness of the excessive fines.

Yes, we want better roads. But we already pay taxes. Vast amounts of taxes. Why aren't roads covered in the basic bill? It's infrastructure, not extra-structure. Why do our politicians demand we pay extra for such a very basic good?

The answer, I'm afraid, is that they want to spend money on other stuff, stuff we don't need as much.

The problem, officer, isn't over-speeding. It's over-spending.