Thursday, December 29, 2005

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.......

5 Comments:

At Thursday, December 29, 2005 1:59:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"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......."

Which end of Whidbey Island are you going to say is the bow and which the stern?

 
At Thursday, December 29, 2005 8:23:00 PM, Blogger Josh said...

I think what you really meant was middle California. My part is pretty ok. Without SF and LA, the state would be great.

 
At Thursday, December 29, 2005 8:55:00 PM, Blogger Mr. Completely said...

Josh: Yup, that's what I meant!

If we could only get rid of Seattle and Vancouver B.C., too..........

 
At Friday, December 30, 2005 11:55:00 PM, Blogger VileBill said...

How Kaliforn-ish!

 
At Saturday, December 31, 2005 10:51:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

An absolute waste of time barking about this. The real scoundrel in the thirty dollar tab debacle is Ron Sims. Annually I write a letter to him (and now John Ladenburg) bitching about the SoundTransit portion of my tabs and all I get back is a form letter from some schlub. Sims, Ladenburg, and especially Gregoire are gutless leeches more concerned about staying in office than in fulfilling their duties.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

All contents copyright 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 and beyond, unless otherwise noted