Once the Senate and House, which approved its version of the repeal on Tuesday, work out the differences in their bills, the repeal would become law immediately after Gov. Tim Kaine signs it.

An amendment to the Senate bill allows drivers who have been fined to petition circuit courts to vacate the fees. The state will reimburse the driver for the amount already paid after the court approves the petition.

The repeal will right “some of the worst action that I believe this legislature has taken in the 25 years that I’ve been here,” said Sen. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania.

The fees were enacted last year as a way to fund much-needed transportation projects, but they instantly outraged Virginia residents when they learned the fees applied only to them, not out-of-state drivers, and could cost in the thousands of dollars.

“It seemed to me that in the earnestness to try and resolve a transportation issue, and without the willingness to really look at a proper way of raising transportation revenue, this mistake was made,” Houck said.

After a state audit earlier this year showed the abuser fees would not raise the intended $65 million or reduce bad driving, lawmakers in both parties were set on repeal.

Petersen said the repeal fixes what legislators broke.

Money still must be found to pay for the growing highway maintenance deficit, a predicted $290 million for fiscal 2009, according to state Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer.

Somelawmakers are pushing to raise the gas tax, such as Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Springfield, who has a plan to raise the gas tax 1 cent a year until 2013, projected to raise $250 million.