New Penalties for Underage Drinking and Driving Take Effect

By Amanda Iacone, Virginia Statehouse News Friday, July 01, 2011

RICHMOND - In 45 days, legislators passed more than 890 bills during this year’s General Assembly session.

Their efforts will allow police to crack down on Internet gambling, entice more sales of Virginia wine and give localities an option to pay for local road improvements. Most Virginia laws take effect today, July 1.

Gov. Bob McDonnell’s $4-billion transportation package was among his top achievements. While the transportation omnibus bill allows the state to borrow billions over the next three years, it also created an infrastructure bank to help localities access money.

The bank will act as a revolving loan fund — a system the state uses to pay for water and sewer improvements — at low interest rates. Businesses also can apply for the funds, if the money goes toward public infrastructure projects like toll roads.

Lawmakers tussled over how to fund the infrastructure bank, because the governor wanted the $150 million to come from the state’s general fund, which pays for education, public safety and social services.

Democrats argued that the governor wanted to rob public education to pay for roads. In the end, the Legislature agreed to provide about $30 million. Savings from the Virginia Department of Transportation, plus money left at the end of the 2010 fiscal year, will help fund the bank for a total of $280 million.

McDonnell has pledged to add as much as $1 billion to the fund over the next three years. He said Thursday that the bank is aimed at secondary road improvements.

“What we’ve done this year is really going to help with secondary roads,” McDonnell said of his overall transportation package.

But state Sen. Dave Marsden, D-Fairfax, who supported the transportation program, said he hopes the governor finds the funding to address the state’s long-term transportation needs this upcoming session.

“We have significant problems … in transportation, both maintenance and construction costs,” Marsden said.

Underage drinking and driving

Teens now face stiffer penalties if they are found guilty of drinking and driving.

They will be charged with a class 1 misdemeanor and risk losing their driver’s license for a full year, if convicted. Previously, teens were charged with a class 2 misdemeanor and a six-month suspension on their license.

Teens also will have to perform community service or a pay a fine as part of any sentence, McDonnell said during a bill signing ceremony Thursday.

“Drunk driving is preventable. The more you educate, the tougher laws that you’ve got the better you can get, especially to those young people who make a lot of bad decisions about getting behind the wheel, the more you can prevent them,” McDonnell said.

The change was needed not just to get teens’ attention but because of an inequity in the law, said state Delegate Bill Janis, R-Henrico.

Judges approached lawmakers because teens caught possessing alcohol illegally also faced jail time — a tougher penalty than for those convicted of drinking and driving under the influence of alcohol, Janis said.

Internet cafes

Lawmakers expanded the definition of illegal gambling  to respond to a rash of illegal gaming businesses popping up statewide.

Businesses would sell phone cards or other tokens to customers who could redeem the cards for time on a gambling terminal.

Internet casino businesses were using a loophole in the state law that said sweepstakes are not gambling.

“You realize this is a ruse when you see all the phone cards on the floor,” said state Delegate Glenn Oder, R-Newport News. “They all have minutes on them, but it appears they have no worth.”

Search warrants

The public and the media will have to wait several days before viewing search warrants.

Now, the affidavits, which police use to lay out their probable cause for a search, will remain sealed for 15 days after they are approved or until they are served.

Circuit court clerks are charged with keeping a record and searchable index of search warrants, so they are accessible to the public.

Winery credits

Several new provisions become laws that legislators said will help Virginia’s growing wine industry.

One law change will eliminate a double excise tax on Virginia wine shipped out of state. Until now, Virginia wine was taxed in Virginia and again in the state where it was shipped, an extra layer of taxation that few states still have.

Eliminating the double tax is expected to help Virginia wineries be more competitive, lawmakers said.

And Virginia wineries now can apply for a tax credit aimed at encouraging more grape production and preventing good farmland from being paved over by development.

The 25-percent tax credit can go toward starting or expanding a winery or vineyard.

Grapes are the 20th-top commodity in the state, and Virginia is the fifth largest producer of wine in the country. Vineyards occupy about 3,000 acres statewide.