Vehicle registration fees--RIPOFF

[JDgreen227]

Last night I renewed the license tabs for both our vehicles, cost close to $150 each for a (censored) tiny little sticker because our state bases registration fees on vehicle cost when purchased new. Wife and I drive maybe 5,000 miles per year combined, and a driver who has a vehicle comparable in price to ours who drives 40,000 miles a year still pays the same registration fee we do.

My state tells us the license fees we pay go to build and maintain roads, and the roads here are in rather poor shape. It seems to me if the state would begin collecting registration fees based on the number of miles a driver put on their vehicles per year, rather than a flat fee, they would possibly pick up additional revenue that way.

Yes, I know it wouldn't be easy to monitor the actual mileage of all the cars and trucks here. But since they (the state) is considering raising registration fees here in order to extort more money for road repairs, that would penalize low mileage drivers like me. I would rather see them monitor road usage instead, and base registration fees on that.

Any comments? Thanks.

 

[Jimbrown]

Consider yourself lucky. My F250 here in Arizona is $540.

 

[brin]

It is the same here...I feel your pain and it makes perfect sense...We live in the rural area of our country so we have poor fire protection the nearest hydrant is 2 miles away, hence we pay a higher home owners insurance premium than someone living close to the hydrant or a fire station...it is over 6 miles from us...We have sparse police protection...we might see a sheriffs car once a month and when we called them once to report a suspicious car...it took them over 30 minutes to respond, We have no county water, sewer and no cable service or natural gas....But guess what...We still pay the same Property Taxes as county residents that have all of the utilities and amenities..

There has to be a more equitable way to handle this.

 

[Diamondpilot]

You are paying 1/3 what we pay in Indiana for similar vehicles to what you have.

As for the miles thing it really all averages out. I am sure there was a time when you drove 5 times what you are now days.

I do not like it any better than you but its the way it is. Yes, some states are more expensive or less expensive but that just changes the tax rate on income, property, and more importantly fuel taxes.

Chris

 

[chopped]

We had a ""temp.''' surcharge two years ago. its still there.. In some cases its doubled my reg rate.. and the roads oh my lol

 

[ME83]

Do you also have an annual vehicle excise tax? Or is it rolled into the registration?

 

[schmism]

Our tags went up a couple of years ago... it jumped like 50%.....

states raising "taxes" without, you know.... raiseing taxes...

 

[MMagis]

Wow, I had no idea how lucky we were here. My '01 Chevy truck will cost me about $50 to renew.

 

[JDgreen227]

Do you also have an annual vehicle excise tax? Or is it rolled into the registration?

Registration fee is good for 12 months, no other excise taxes, etc. included.

 

[clemsonfor]

Last night I renewed the license tabs for both our vehicles, cost close to $150 each for a (censored) tiny little sticker because our state bases registration fees on vehicle cost when purchased new. Wife and I drive maybe 5,000 miles per year combined, and a driver who has a vehicle comparable in price to ours who drives 40,000 miles a year still pays the same registration fee we do.

My state tells us the license fees we pay go to build and maintain roads, and the roads here are in rather poor shape. It seems to me if the state would begin collecting registration fees based on the number of miles a driver put on their vehicles per year, rather than a flat fee, they would possibly pick up additional revenue that way.

Yes, I know it wouldn't be easy to monitor the actual mileage of all the cars and trucks here. But since they (the state) is considering raising registration fees here in order to extort more money for road repairs, that would penalize low mileage drivers like me. I would rather see them monitor road usage instead, and base registration fees on that.

Any comments? Thanks.

There is a huge debate similar to your point in congress over federal fuel tax. Reason as most of you know and im sure have heard is that these new hybrids that use less fuel and worse the electrics. I know they dont weigh much but a nissan leaf prolly weighs the same or more than a honda fit with all the nissans batteries. The Nissan will buy no fuel over its life the honda will, but the nissan still drives on the same state and federal highways which are subsidised/paidfor with fuel tax. What to do?