Hosed Again!

Many of you in Washington State may have noticed that our un-elected governor has proposed a supplimental budget of an additional 504 million dollars to add 500 more state employees and create some more holes in the ground into which the state government can pound money.

AnalogKid at Random Nuclear Strikes has a good post that goes into more detail on this disaster. The basic philosophy seems to be to tax the citizens as much as possible, and in as many ways as possible, then redistribute the money by hiring more state employees, building more state buildings, and creating more state agencies.

A couple of years ago the voters of Washington State, through the inititive process, and successive legal battles, made it the law that vehicle license tabs would cost $30 for everyone.

I just got the renewal notice for my 1969 Ford van in the mail, and guess what? The cost to renew the tabs is $30.00, plus a $3.75 "handling fee" plus an additional charge based on the weight of the vehicle as follows: Up to 4,000 lbs add $10.00, 4,001 lbs to 6,000 lbs, add $20.00, 6,001 lbs to 8,000 lbs add $30.00, and 8,001 lbs to 10,000 lbs add $32.00!

This is an additional charge over the mandated $30.00 to renew your tabs that you HAVE to pay to GET your tabs renewed, but it's not an increase in the cost to renew the tabs. RIGHT! Of course, if you don't pay the additional fees, you don't get the tabs renewed......

To make it even worse, due to the age of my poor old van, it's not listed in their books, so it's up to ME to provide documentation as to the weight of the van! If I can't come up with documentation to their satisfaction, then I will have to take the van to a certified weigh station and pay to have it weighed.

Of course, since I own the ONLY 1969 Ford E200 Econoline van in the state of Washington, they can't look through their records to find out what weight has been submitted by others renewing THEIR tabs. (Did that sound sarcastic and insulting to the morons in the DMV? Good! It was supposed to sound that way!!)

When the giant earthquake breaks off Southern California and sinks it in the Pacific ocean, I wonder if it could also make a little detour and take Olympia, Washington as well.......