WCBD: Lawmaker Passes The Buck
MOTORIST HIT WITH FINE DUE TO LEGISLATOR’S VIOLATION
FITSNews – August 25, 2008 – We’re used to state lawmakers passing the buck to South Carolina taxpayers by now, but this story out of Charleston takes the practice to a whole new level.
According to Lowcountry TV station WCBD, a Mount Pleasant, S.C. resident received a bill from the State Department of Transportation for running a toll booth on Hilton Head Island, except he wasn’t on the Island at the time and doesn’t drive the type of car that was photographed running the toll booth …
Ron Bellonio called (WCBD) after he received the bill in the mail. According to the bill, he owes the South Carolina Department of Transportation 13-dollars and 75 cents for running a toll booth at the Cross Island Parkway in Hilton Head on three separate occassions. Bellonio says, “It’s a summons to pay $13.75 for tolls in Hilton Head … I had no idea we were down in Hilton Head. Apparently, they’ve got the wrong vehicle.”
A camera took a photo of the vehicle. It’s an S-U-V with the license tag number 77, and it appears to have a state emblem and the word legislator at the bottom. Here’s where the problem comes in, Bellonio owns a Lexus sedan with a license plate tag with the same number, 77. Bellonio says he would never run a toll and was not in Hilton Head on the dates indicated on the bill.
Bellonio says, “It doesn’t appear that this has been checked by anybody. As you can see, the vehicle is not a sedan, it’s an SUV, and they apparently randomly saw the 77 and didn’t look at anything else, and just decided that my car was the one that should pay the fine.” Ron Bellonio says he will not pay the fine. He says, “There’s no reason to run a toll booth for a dollar and 25 cents, which really doesn’t make sense. I’de like to see the individual reprimanded especially being in the state legislature. These are people that we rely on to make the laws and make changes and so forth, and if we’ve got people running toll booths that are in the legislature, It doesn’t make sense.”
Of course $13.75 is nothing compared to the multi-billion screw job these morons put over on us every year …
UPDATE – Damn … we’re never listening to local television again …
Comments
By Cockfighter on August 25th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Will someone let Bellonio in on the secret please. The legislature rips us a new one every time they make a vote, even if it is only a buck and a quarter. Go Cocks!
By Vic on August 25th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Who,s tag is it
By bucktwofive on August 25th, 2008 at 10:32 am
yeah, who is 77? It would obviously be a house member. anyone got any ideas?
By holierthanthou on August 25th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
michael D. Thompson
By Yobuddy on August 25th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
When you buy an annual toll pass (Palmetto Pass), you are supposed to list on your account the tag numbers of all your vehicles. As cars pass through the toll plaza, a computer program scans license tags and when a vehicle blows through the Palmetto-Pass lane with no transponder, the computer captures the tag number and cross-references it with the data base of people who have paid for annual passes. Believe it or not SCDOT is using this modern approach rather than hiring some state employee to look up tag numbers. Problem is, every now and then somebody forgets to list a tag on his Palmetto-Pass acount, so he gets a nastygram saying pay up. In this case, obviously the computer did not recognize the fact that DMV has issued a 77 tag (albeit with differing tag designs) to two different people. Tell the guy in Mount Pleasant to get used to it. The Libertarians want to put tolls EVERYWHERE!
By Mike Hunt on August 26th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
I just wanted to know why this damn yankee Ron Bellonio contacts a TV station instead of working it out through DOT. That poor shmuck just blew his 15 minutes of fame on much ado about nothing.
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