Fairfax County defendants convicted of a legal violation in the county's district or circuit courts may soon have to pay an additional $5 fee on top of their conviction.
SB 693 which passed the General Assembly this month allows local jurisdictions to assess a fee of "not in excess of $5 as part of the costs in each criminal or traffic case in its district or circuit court in which the defendant is convicted of a violation of any statute or ordinance."
Gov. Mark Warner (D) has until April 17 to sign the bill. If he approves it, it will become effective on July 1 and sunset on July 1, 2004.
Supervisor Gerald Connolly (D-Providence) who asked county staff for an update on the status of the bill as part of the FY 2003 Budget Q&A Items said he hopes the Board of Supervisors will vote on the measure in the coming weeks. "By the end of April we would take action on it," he said.
BEFORE APPROVING the ordinance, the county is required to hold a public hearing on the measure and notify the public of the hearing three weeks before it is set to take place.
According to county staff, the new fee could generate as much as $893,118 from the General District Court and $36,580 from the Circuit Court, which would go into the general fund, according to Connolly.
Connolly called the fee "a way to ease the pressure on homeowners" who currently generate more than half of the county's income. "We're trying to diversify our revenue base so that the burden isn't only on the homeowners," he said.
Because Virginia is a state bound by the Dillon Rule, individual localities such as Fairfax County have no decision-making power except that which has been explicitly conferred to them by the Commonwealth. As it is, Connolly said, "the only tax we really control is the real estate tax."
THE NEW FEE would diversify the funding sources for the county. "It's one more piece of the mosaic," said Connolly. "It's not a new tax."
Arthur Purves of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance disagrees. "Supervisor Connolly will say anything to confuse the taxpayer, to make higher taxes not seem like higher taxes."
"This is worse than a tax," he added. "The difference between a tax and a fee is you can't enter a fee on your income tax. ... It wouldn't be necessary if states and localities would control their funding."
According to Ludwig Benner, a resident of Oakton, the potential new fee represents the latest outrage in what is already a bloated government unable to control its spending.
"They must lie awake at night dreaming up ways to milk the people," he said. "All they're doing is squeezing the balloon, ... rather than looking for ways to do better with less."