Revenue Sources for Financing Transportation Safety Activities in Virginia

About the report:

Senate Bill 85, an action of the 1978 General Assembly, amended the Code of Virginia to provide, in part, that the Division of Highway Safety be succeeded by the newly created Department of Transportation Safety effective July 1, 1978. In its Declaration of Policy, §33.1-390, the amended Code states that it is the policy of the Commonwealth to "investigate, evaluate and promote the safe movement of people and property by all modes -- highway, railway, waterway, airway, and mass transit." (emphasis added.) Because gasoline conservation has decreased excise tax revenues, and because the national political climate indicates impending reductions in federal spending, the Virginia Department of Transportation Safety will probably need to explore alternative ways of financing the expanded safety operations mandated by Senate Bill 85. One possible source of new revenues is a surcharge on traffic fines. This measure was mentioned in an earlier report on revenue sources, but the present report discusses the surcharge in greater detail and compares the relative merits of different forms of assessing it.

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