I don’t want to put this in the Pit, because I hope to gain some enlightenment here rather than just vent. But how is it that our automobile registration fees, which go to support road and highway construction and maintenance, and only those things, has now become a “tax”? Do the conservatives like Arnold Schwarzeneggar who rail against this so-called tax think the government should simply maintain the roads without taking in revenue to support them? That doesn’t seem like a sound fiscal policy to me. As it is, the registration fee is a usage fee; the people who drive on the roads pay for the roads. Shouldn’t that be ideal from the conservative point of view?
I’m not saying that everything about the way these fees are collected is proper. For instance, I don’t see why you should pay less as your car ages. But, is it really a ‘tax’?
I don’t see it as unfair to call it a tax. If the vehicle licensing fees were spent directly on roads, I would be fine to call it a fee. I haven’t found too much information on VLFs, but it seems that it goes directly to local government. DMV page Do you have any info that this money is to be spent only on transportation by local government? It doesn’t seem like it… so it goes to the general fund… so it’s a tax. IMO it’s the liberals who are playing semantics games in this case.
Californians would really like to pay their taxes to get better roads, and it’s even in the California constitution (article XIX), and recently in Proposition 42 to further hold the government to follow the constitution. They’ve both been very sad failures. Here’s a good site which points out the ridiculous raiding of transportation money by governors both recalled and current.
State spending on transportation is only $400 million this year, I’m guessing local governments are expected to take care of their local roads and highways with the VLF tax… um… fees. I guess it’s no wonder that the roads are barely maintained and new projects are on hold indefinately.
If it’s being diverted to the general fund, and being used to pay for non-transportation related projects, then I’ll concede it is a tax. But I wasn’t aware that was happening.