NEARLY HALF of the adults in
Maybe we're old. Maybe we have difficulty understanding forms. Maybe English is a second language. Maybe we are comforted by a human presence in a call-waiting and type-your-password society that somewhere along the way made everyone's convenience but ours supreme. Should we be charged an extra five bucks for wanting personal help renewing our tags?
That's just what the General Assembly has decided, passing a bill by Sen. Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover, that assesses a $5 surcharge on anyone who shows up at a DMV Service Center to renew his registration instead of doing it by phone or mail or over the Internet. Call it one more step in the dehumanization of your state government.
Notably, Del. Mark Cole, R-Spotsylvania, was one of only eight House members to vote against it. Mr. Cole says he'd rather see a discount for motorists who renew online than a surcharge on those who don't.
Indeed, there's nothing wrong with encouraging Virginians to use other means to get their tags. More than half of us have already opted for the Internet. Of the 35 percent who go to a DMV office, some, no doubt, are procrastinators in a hurry to stay legal. But some are people who just need human assistance to get the job done. Many are poor, elderly, or foreign-born--often the very Virginians least able to absorb another $5 state fee. Call them the voiceless downtrodden. They're easy pickings for the General Assembly, and all too often they bear the brunt of misguided "efficiencies."
The ire over civil remedial fees seems to have taught most lawmakers nothing, but maybe the executive branch is brighter. Gov. Kaine should veto this bill and restore equity to DMV walk-ins--taxpayers who deserve equal treatment from the state workers whose salaries they pay.