Car dealers are amateurs when it comes to the bait-and-switch. The true masters of this art are politicians – such as Virginia Governor Ralph “Coonman” Northam. He tantalizes empty-pocketed taxpayers – whose pockets are empty because of all the taxes they’re forced to pay – with lower taxes.
Of course, he doesn’t quite put it that way, much less explain what he’s up to – so let’s do that.
Virginia, like most states, applies an annual vehicle registration tax – in addition to the sales taxes people are forced to pay when they buy a car, then the tax to title the car and then again each year for the conditional privilege of temporary possession – the property tax on the vehicle. Which if you fail to pay, the vehicle’s true status as the property of the state will be made manifest.
The registration tax is about $50 per year – which adds up over the years. If you own one vehicle for ten years you will have paid $500 in registration taxes.
In addition to that tax, there is another annual tax – the state “safety” inspection tax. People are forced to take their vehicle to an “approved” garage and have its tires and brakes and so on looked over – even if they have looked over these things themselves. The usual justification – that because some people are irresponsible (and would otherwise drive around with bad brakes and threadbare tires) is used to presume everyone is irresponsible – and force them to have their vehicle inspected each year.
And, of course, pay every year.
Another $20 – which times ten equals another $200 plus the $500 for the registration is $700 – which is a lot of money, especially given how much money has already been taken by the government.
Well, the Coonman promises relief.
No more annual inspections! And he’ll cut the annual registration taxes in half!
In exchange for a new inspection tax – and an increase in gas taxes.
The “safety” inspection are to be repealed . . . and replaced (you’d think the Coonman was a Republican) with statewide emissions inspections, which many of Virginia’s rural counties don’t currently require at all. Because they aren’t currently needed. There is no pollution problem in these counties.
But the Coonman wants to force everyone in these counties to get their car’s exhaust (and more) inspected, regardless.
Curiously, the Coonman’s stated reason for his proposal to repeal the safety inspections – he says “there is no connection between highway safety and these inspections” – doesn’t seem to apply to emissions inspections. But if forcing people to get their car’s brakes and tires checked doesn’t make the roads “safer,” how is it that forcing them to get their exhaust sniffed makes the air “cleaner”?
If anything, the “safety” inspections make more sense – if you support collective punishment – as things like brakes and tires do wear out while emissions systems generally last the life of the vehicle. And some people do drive around on bald tires and brakes that don’t – while almost no one drives around without a catalytic converter. Cars made since the ’80s – with integrated emissions controls – run better with their emissions controls intact. The main justification given for emissions inspections in the past – tampering, removal of emissions controls – is no longer relevant.
Neither is emissions, which haven’t been a meaningful problem since the ’80s.
Nevermind.
Mandating these new – and statewide tests – won’ clean the air but will empower the Coonman to thrust his hands even deeper into every state resident’s pockets – not just those in the heavily populated counties of Northern Virginia, where these tests are currently mandatory.
The emissions test costs more ($28) than the inspection tests.
It will also give the Coonman a tool to force older cars off the roads in the rural counties where these tests are not currently mandatory. In Northern Virginia, vehicle registration – the initial getting as well as renewing – is conditional on the vehicle passing the emissions test. It isn’t in the rest of the state, which makes it feasible to drive an older car from the ’80s and before that passes the safety inspection – but would likely fail the emissions inspection.
And not even because of its emissions.
Modifications also constitute grounds for failing the test. The exhaust can be “clean” – within allowable limits – but if it’s not a factory exhaust system (for example, a dual exhaust system in place of the original single) or the engine has a “non-stock” air cleaner it gets failed – and its owner can’t register it, which means he can’t legally drive it.
It is common for older cars to be modified in this manner because their first-generation emissions systems were crude and they made the cars run worse. Also, after 30 or 40 years, original parts are often no longer available and the only option is to modify the vehicle. Which can result in its failing – regardless of its actual emissions.
But it’s not just the old cars that are in the crosshairs.
It is very likely that the Coonman intends to use these emissions inspections to get all cars that aren’t electric cars off the road, too. “Emissions” having been scurrilously redefined to include carbon dioxide – which even the “cleanest” running late-model non-electric car “emits.” This argument will be presented in due course.
The Coonman isn’t just looking to grab guns; he is also gunning for mobility.
Which brings us to the increase in gas taxes, intended to make driving other than an electric car increasingly unaffordable.
The Coonman wants to bump the state tax on motor fuels from the current 22 cents per gallon to 34 cents. This will cost the average driver four times as much as the annual $20 state safety inspection.
A 12 cents per gallon tax increase means paying $1.80 more in taxes on 15 gallons of gas (the capacity of the average car’s gas tank). If the driver fills up four times in a month – which most people do – he’ll have paid about $7.20 more in taxes. Times twelve and you get $86.40 – four times plus the cost of the annual safety inspection tax.
And that’s the average. Drivers of cars – and trucks and SUVs – with larger gas tanks that use more gas will pay substantially more than four times the cost of having their car’s brakes and tires examined.
“Those who drive more should pay more,” the Coonman says.
And drive less.
Coonman lets the cat out of the bag, telling the press “With these changes we can maximize our rail investments . . .” He desires to nudge Virginians to “… make environmentally friendly vehicle choices.”
Guess what he means by that.
The Coonman also hinted – through underlings – at taxes-by-the-mile, in addition to taxes on fuel and taxes for new inspections.
The taxes-on-mileage are not just a Virginia thing. It is a coming thing – nationally. Part of an ingenious pincer movement that, on the one hand, is forcing EVs down our throats and then – on the other hand – will use the EV to justify taxes-by-the-mile, since EVs don’t get taxed on gas.
But it won’t be just EVs that get taxed-by-the-mile. All cars will be odometer dunned – and odometer monitored, using a kind of vehicular ankle bracelet that keeps the state apprised of how many miles you’ve driven – as well as when and where.
Of course, taxes on gas won’t be repealed, either. In fact, they’ll be increased – “indexed” to inflation, automatically.
Bait meet switch.
. . .
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Eric, House Bill 130 is the one about repealing safety inspections. Its text is available online from the Virginia government website.
There is nothing in it about expanding emissions testing. I also can’t find any other bill proposing that.
I wouldn’t put anything past Gov. Northam and his cronies, but on the face of it HB 130 simply repeals safety inspections for almost all vehicles without imposing new requirements in their place for average owners.
Hi EK,
The bill pertains to just the inspections – but Coonman has tendered the rest as policy goals. See the article linked to in my piece.
Hey, it’s all worse in CA where all the numbers quoted here are much higher. My 2006 corolla costs $135/yr and every 2 years I have to get a $50 smog inspection. And of course, the price for gas is almost $4 today, much of that in taxes and the privilege to have crappier fuel with alcohol in it.
In the past, they would actually measure the output at the tailpipe, and even have the car on a roller so it could be tested at speed. Then they passed a bill that said all of that was unnecessary and all they do is a computer readout. So, as long as your car doesn’t rat you out, you’re good to go.
One reason given was to lower the cost of the inspection. Well, Ha! guess what, the price is still $50 and all the guy did today was look at the engine with a flashlight for 15 seconds, and then spend about 10 minutes waiting for the state’s server system to be ready to upload the data on my car.
Perhaps it is time for Virginians to nullify this guy’s employment. Recall, impeach, imprison ,run off.
Hop in boys, I’m gonna RUNNOFT.
I don’t miss the personal property taxes in VA whatsoever. Here in TX, we pay tax when we buy the car, then there is a registration fee. And not to argue with the Crusty TV Tech, Yearly inspections are cursory. at least where I go in DFW. If the OBD says it’s OK, it’s OK. I had one car fail because it had a failed O2 sensor. Not that the emissions were tested.
Didn’t VA at one point put a limit on how old a car was to have emissions? At least in NVA? I dont remember.
And to pump up rail? Jeezis these commies need to control their rail boners. The only place in the state that has it in any form really is northern VA, and you can’t really use it to get anywhere. I’d have to drive 5 miles to the closest station – Springfield, which was the end of the line, to use rail.
The rest of the state has none. None of these rural counties benefit from rail at all.
Thanks for that update. I lived in DFW during the 1980s-90s, and emissions tests were required in that area (Tarrant, Dallas and all adjacent counties). Since I had an older car, I avoided those tests by driving to places like Mineral Wells and Hillsboro for the regular inspections.
As for the “rail boner,” bear in mind that it was the federal bureaucrats in NoVa who put Coonman in office. They don’t care about the erst of the state at all.
All politicians use mumbo-jumbo to rob Peter to pay Paul. There is never any tax relief or tax cuts. What they put in one pocket, they take out of the other pocket and more so. Have you ever known any government system be it federal, state or local to spend less money from one year to the next? No, it is always spend more and more and that requires more revenues, as in taxes and fees. State and local governments cannot create their own money like the feds can…and we see where that is taking us. 20% of my cell phone bill is taxes and fees. They keep going up even if I hardly use the thing. There are so many hidden taxes that most consumers have little time to read the fine print. And it is going to get much, much worse as governments on all levels have to come to terms with the fact that they do not have enough money (taxes) collected to pay out pension requirements. This is a worldwide problem. The only way you will escape more taxes is to not have an income or be a consumer. Your best hope is to move to the west coast and live free on the streets in some big stinky city.
So…. 20 years ago, I started an LLC in Montana. Put both of my cars and motorhome in it. I no longer “own ” them, but I “control” them. In the state of Montana, once any vehicle is over ten years old, there are NO MORE fees and you receive a permanent registration. No BS saaaaaafffty stickers to mar your windshield either.
A good idea, indeed, but not the best option for insurance, which is significantly higher for vehicles owned by businesses. Futhermore, LLC’s can be expensive to create if you have to hire a lawyer, and LLC’s are subject to yearly annual report fees to maintain active status with the state. Then there is an estate planning challenge with LLC property, which will have to go through probate in order to change title … and THAT is going to cost you more than you’ll ever save by registering in Montana, in addition to making the lives of your beneficiaries a living hell in dealing with endless administrative paperwork to transfer title. Unless you were smart enough to create an inter vivos revocable trust that is the sole member (owner) of the LLC, and the trust is jointly titled on the vehicles with the LLC.
Amen, Jack. And in addition, a lot of states now are starting to crack down on out-of-state registrations and such; plus, if one forms an LLC, one can more easily lose what little protections we have left of our basic rights, because a corporation is a creature of government, and your personal rights do not extend to it, even if you own it.
Hi Jack (don’t say that in an airport),
As a contractor and touring musician, my situation is a little different than most. The wife and I are full timers in an RV. The LLC was set up by my attorney 20 years ago for 1000 bucks. I pay him 125 bucks a year as the registered agent and the LLC address is his Montana office. The LLC is strictly a holding company. The insurance difference was really minimal and so far it has worked out well for us, if no other reason than waaaaay less hassle
In my state anyone csn form a corporatiion or LLC. SecState have the document forms, or download online. Filling them out is easy and fairly fast. Vehicles are exempt the excise tax, a those are paid on ALL vehicles elsewise. The registration fee to initiate a corporation is about $150, annual renewal is I think $65. When I did mine some ten years back I hopped on my bike, rode the four miles into town, got the blank forms at the counter, filled it all out wiht a free ballpiont pen from my bank, wrote the check and was back home in about an hour. You can apply for the state reseller’s tax account, no deposit or fee, they will assign yur UBI number, you tell them your anticipated business volume then they decide whether you rile sales taxes on month, quarter, or annual basis. Filling out the endless sales tax forms online takes ten times more than forming the corporation in the first place. Your new Fed tax ID number (for income, other taxes) is also easy to get.. go oneline to IRS, find the “corporate” tax ID number section, fill out that part, send or bring it in, you get your Fed number by post a few weeks later. You’ll need that to open a bank account unless you want it under YOUR Social Security Number, a BAAAAAADDDdddd idea.
If the LLC is a holding company (as mine is) and not bringing in “income”. There is no requirement for a tax ID number…at least in MT.
Sounds like you guys are piling it higher and deeper upon yourselves- i.e. getting embraced by, and embracing more tentacles of the state, in exchange for….what is not quite clear to me.
And technically (I know you guys don’t intend it as such…but just remember) a corporation- especially a Limited Liability Corporation is a creation of the state designed to shield it’s participants from liability. i.e. it is a about as opposiote libertarianism as one can get- the trading of some fees and additional taxes, and the giving up of some privacies and rights, in exchange for protection from Uncle against fellow citizens if they should have a claim against you.
Again, I understand that you guys are not using it for that intent- but it is something to think about, considering how we feel about Uncle and the free market and all- and the fact that by forming a corp we are in fact giving up some more of our privacy and rights….and in exchange for what? Essentially escaping one fee only to have to pay another.
Nunz, LLC’s are fickle. The real gain can be had with a class C corporation. I was seriously considering using one in Nevada, Golding I think it was. They would do everything including your bookwork and name proxy board members since Texas requires every corporation of any sort to reveal their board members. Rarely is this done with the real owner(s) names available. That’s a good thing. Probably it’s no surprise any business you have is best served with the most layers between it and the IRS. Speak to who? You have the wrong number.
If I get a call and somebody asks who they’re speaking with, I always ask why they would call and not have a certain person in mind. When they reply something stupid I hang up and block their number.
8, those proxy names give them “rights” in your corp.
Way I see it: Start acting like a politician and using their chicanery…you end up becoming what they are; and since you’re playing by their rules….they often end up one-upping you in the end.
I’m me; this is my stuff. If I try to use Uncle Over-yonder to get some relief from Uncle Local…I may get that relief from Uncle Local….but end up being more indebted to Uncle Over-yonder.
Sign up for somethin’, and ya gotta folly their rules…whereas if ya never signed up, those rules wouldn’t apply to ya. That’s how they make criminals out of innocent people, like Martha Stewart (Was she the one?).
Nunz, those are private companies. The last thing they want to do is piss you off. They inform you of any horizon event that might happen due to a court ruling or rule(at the end of a gun)change and let you decide and always tell you what they think the result of a particular decision is likely to be.
Two different things 8. The names by proxy….that’s the private company. But having those names as corporate officers gives them a say in your corp.
Other issue: What a corporation is: It is creating an entity through the state thsat is essentially an artificial person. (That’s where these “freemen/sovereign citizen types get all of that “natural person” lingo from- It’s talking about corporations vs., real people)- But a corp is essentially applying to a state government to have your assets and business come under it’s jurisdiction- i.e. they get jurisdiction over you which they otherwise would not have, in exchange for certain protections and privileges.
Some of the states are catching on and will come after you if they think you’re a resident. The high-tax states are the most aggressive with this, of course. The usual suspects…
In Nevada, no income tax or auto safety inspections (yet), but sales tax is approaching 9% (though 3% was somehow adequate 50 years ago), and – get this – annual registration for a typical new car runs $500/year or so. A high end vehicle could easily cost one $1000/year! Thankfully, the fee goes down a bit each year, to about $50/year for a vehicle 20 years old or older. Nevertheless, if one favors newer vehicles, one can easily pay 10 or 20 thousand dollars to the Nevada DMV over one’s lifetime! Taxation *is* indeed theft! Especially when it they are either 1) wasted on crap or 2) given to folks who didn’t earn it.
Hi Tom,
Yup. Some states are better – or worse – than others – but they’re all bad in that they all steal to one degree or another. I hammer relentlessly on the property tax (real estate and vehicles, etc.) because it’s not just theft – it’s denial of ownership. One does not truly own that which one may only retain possession of so long as one pays to retain possession of it. This is called renting – and that’s just what these “taxes” are designed to do. Shear us of eve the possibility of owning anything more than the clothes on our backs and whatever small baubles we can carry.
Like the serfs of old Russia.
Tennessee has no income tax on wages, Property tax on Real Property only (110k home has a $1,670.21 City and County per year). Vehicle registration on my 2017 Nissan Van is 113 dollars a year. No personal property tax on household items. Where we get hit is gas and sales taxes. By and large TN gas taxes are 20 cents a gallon higher than Mississippi. My wife works so close to MS, she fills up her car there. Additionally, MS sales taxes for the state is 7% right now. Some MS localities have more like Oxford, MS which is the home of the university of MS. They are paying for a stadium for the Ole Miss football team with a 1.25% increase in the sales tax. The current sales tax for all locales in TN is 9.25% with the suburbs of Memphis tacking on an additional .5%. I work very hard to avoid buying anything in any Memphis suburb. recently the State of TN lowered (Yes! I was dumbfounded too!) the sales tax on food to 6.25%. Of course, the burbs kept their onerous .5%. They claim it is to pay for their schools but the county property tax pays for that. The .5% goes to line bubba’s pockets don’t ya know?
BTW, Memphis did away with the inspection requirement. However, the fee for the inspection is still in the vehicle registration. LOL!
Vehicle registration on my 2017 Nissan Van is 113 dollars a year
Hah, I pay just a td more than that for my 22 year old Ford van with 365K miles on it. Some parts of this state WA have smog inspecions, the rural conties do not. The ones who make the rules also exempt te State Capirol and surroiunding county terriroty exempt… since THEY all “live here” and THEY do not want to deal with it for their own cars. One more tme gummit get a pass, and the rest of us suffer the laws they enact.
Here in good ole Australia, set alight by the greenies who have been wanting to do this for sometime, car registration only is $800 per year, regardless of how little or how much you drive, and regardless of age of the car. There is also 10% goods and service tax on the purchase of the car and any parts for the car. Plus the liability insurance is on you. Unless you are on the pension which reduces rego costs by 50%. And then there are council rates, for just the local councils, which are really businesses. Ours run close to $3000 per year, the highest operating cost for our house. So it’s not just the US that has these excess taxes, we sure have them in Australia.
The anti-private-automobile groups never add up all the taxes paid by motorists. If government couldn’t collect so much from motorists they would stop building and taking care of roads. Which is going to become a huge bind as automobiles are moved back to being toys of the wealthy. Although power over people is always more valuable than revenue.
Eric,
When [not if] you move, choose a state that doesn’t have inspections. If nothing else, just escaping those damned inspections was so liberating, it made my move exceedingly worth it. Not to even mention the plethora of other advantages that have so increased my happiness and quality of life.
Amen to that. When I moved from TX to FL in the 1990s, I was thrilled to discover my new state had abolished inspections several years earlier. Also, FL does not require a front license plate. (In fact, TX & VA are the only Southern states that do.)
Heh, yeah, Zenit! Even little things like that! Here too- unlike NY- no front plate; no stickers on the windshield (v.s inspection and registration stickers in NY)….. Even those little things just make it seem so much better.
Yeah I was seriously considering a move to Texas, lots of good things about that state, but one thnig that really stuck in my craw was the annual pilgrimmage to the vehicle inspection. Not for me. I”m a professional mechanic by trade, for decades. Those inspections are a pox on any population. I’ve had them go balllistic over the use of hard ened stainless steel safely lock wire on ball joint and tie rod ends in place of the soft mild steel split pins. Customer had them from someone else, got busted and did not pass the insection, so I had to clip the HARD ss safety wire (what they use onrae cars and aircraft.. ye think it might have some advantage over te soft chinese “steel” splitpin cotters?
Nannies gonna nannie, and on THEIR terms. So the guy had a bill at MY shop, and had to go back and redo the inspection, taking the time off work (they’re NEVER about outside of normal work in a factory hours)
Heh, Yeah Tio!
In NY, unless you “know someone”, your car if it’s more than a couple of years old, is going to fail the inspection. The law there is that after $400 worth of repairs it still doesn’t pass, then they have to pass it anyway. So every inspection magically ends up costing you $400.
Funny how the car would be “unsafe” or a “polluter” -but after you spend $400, even if it’s still unsafe and still pollutes…it’s O-K then.
I knew quite a few guys who had shops….but as they were honest guys, they didn’t do inspections, ’cause it’s not worth their time to do an inspection (not to mention the $50K equipment they have to purchase to do it) HONESTLY for the $16 or whatever the NY fee was…. The only way it paid, is if you “found stuff wrong” and could make a few hundred bucks to pay for the equipment and lost time.
Talk about government being organized crime!
I wasted more money- especially when I was a kid and didn’t know much about cars or have a place to work on ’em- each year on those stupid inspections…. Money that could have actually been used to improve or upgrade my vehicle….but which was wasted on unnecessary non-repairs, due to the state’s criminal enterprise which it ran for the benefit of those who paid and complied to be licensed as “an official NYS motor vehicle repair shop” (And Gawd help you if you didn’t purchase their license and comply!) [And for just a few extry bucks, ya got to be “an official NYS motor vehicle inspection station”…but you needed the aforementioned lic. first]
They don’t even check the headlight angle in Texas now. Do the lights work, windshield wipers with some rubber and the horn blows. You’re gone.
This is the same brand of male bovine fecal matter as VA’s attempted 2A violation. As such it deserves neither respect, nor compliance. Virginia is the one location in the nation where there is such a hard geographical border between the Yankees and civilization, those who insist on minding other people’s business, and those who insist on minding their own. That’s why the first “Civil” war (which wasn’t a civil war because the South had no intentions of overthrowing their government) started and ended there. Leaving the State is a temporary solution. Tyrants do not respect borders. Hence their belligerence all over the world. The only viable options in defense of liberty are civil disobedience (non compliance) or rebellion. We may see the latter regarding VA’s assault on 2A. Perhaps we will see the former regarding VA’s assault on free movement.
Basic problem: Two political party’s control. The Rs and Ds are together on this – keep any competition off the ballot. Only the Rs and Ds will be heard in presidential “debates” and elsewhere. A choice of only two of most anything is unsatisfactory.
Basic problem: It doesn’t matter what government you start with, being the ideal environment for sociopaths, it eventually gets saturated with them. We crossed that line long ago. Gang rape is democracy in action.
“Gang rape is democracy in action.”
That’s even better than Ben Franklin’s “two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.”
Then he added “Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.” Your equivalent would be “Liberty is an armed woman contesting the vote.”
The majority of two party control is based on the guaranteed ballot access that the democrats and republicans voted in for themselves.
If everyone on the ballot had to pass the same requirements, those requirements would decline.
We might even wind up with a pseudo-parliamentary system where the only majorities would require coalitions.
“Modifications also constitute grounds for failing the test.”
Does that include mods that actually improve “emissions”? lol
The usual answer is yes. I don’t see why the situation in Virginia would be any different, after all the people making these rules aren’t any more technical than the people making them anywhere else, so they can only think in terms of “box checking” even if they also test for results.
This governor of yours is really anti-fun, Eric. First he wants to ban guns (10+ gun control bills introduced this week to the VA legislature) and now he wants to ban the fun cars.
I bet he spends his nights clutching his bedclothes tightly in fear that someone out there is having a good time.
Sometimes, I wonder if the very idea of having fun will become illegal one day. Because, you know, “saaaaafety”.
Hi bluegray,
Of course fun will be illegal eventually. It is “unnecessary” and usually also “unsafe.” And there you go!
Yup.Ever since I was a kid in high school I’ve LOVED flying down a mountain road, peddaling as hard as I can in the proper gear for the speed i’m making. My second bike had SUPER tall gears, and I could spin the higest one out going down a mountain road. They did not hae ‘cadence” meters (pedal RPM readout) back then, but I know from having one forty years later I could spin to at least 190 RPM with power. we did not have helmets back then , either. I DO war one always, now. As well as a small tool for personal defense, frame pump, spare tyres and tubes, patch kit, basic tools (real ones, not the toys that come in a kit from the cyclery). Spare spokes and nipples, shift cable)
Tio, I can only imagine actual mountain roads! There are some decent hills around here- and just on them, without pedaling very hard, I’ve hit 47MPH…..
It would be lot of fun for him to wake up surrounded by constituents that wouldn’t let him leave.
“Modifications also constitute grounds for failing the test. The exhaust can be ‘clean’ – within allowable limits – but if it’s not a factory exhaust system (for example, a dual exhaust system in place of the original single) or the engine has a ‘non-stock’ air cleaner it gets failed – and its owner can’t register it, which means he can’t legally drive it.”
Ah, I see they’re doing it the California way.
Fuel taxes aren’t such a touchy subject for me since weaning roads off “general tax” funding might mean the you-know-whats would not longer “have a right”, but the inspections have to die and frankly I agree that emissions tests are worse. A safety inspection, even if it is coercive and preemptive, at least has the objective of making sure the car in question isn’t a direct danger to other road users. An emissions inspection is just holding individuals personally responsible for vague, unquantifiable contributions to collective problems, and once you’ve accepted the principle that that is an acceptable thing to do, there really is no limit.
I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that seatbelt and catalytic converter laws are what led to Obamacare.
“I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that seatbelt and catalytic converter laws are what led to Obamacare.”
Exactly! The good ‘ol frog in the pot! Turn the heat up very slowly and gradually so that the “frogs” don’t notice until it’s too late.
Most statesIve checked do not use general fund moneys for road repair/maintainence. Its the other way round.. they hike the fuel, number plate, “use” tax, and others, on vehicles to outrageous rates then siphon off funds from those moneys for all manner of other “uses”. Soe years back, when we had a value based excise tax as part of the tag renewal each year, a new car could cost well into four figures per year because of its alledged value. When the voters enacted a citizens initiative recuing “registration” costs fo thirty dollars, the newspapers were full of propaganda thinly disguised as “articles” on a serious whinge about libraries, vaccine programmes, school lunch, parks and recrearion departments, , county health departments, city busses, the county dump, seniour centres, would have to be ended becuas all the money they USED to getf rom ur number plate fees would not be coming in future. When that tax was first put in place it was specifically claimed to be ONLY for highway aintainence and repairs and improveent// a user based tax, Boy what a surprise to learn some of the things that plate fee went for every year.
They could not be more efficient or effective using a twelve bore.
Wow. He really is going after all things that rural residents care about! I can’t even imagine what he’ll come up with next! His proposal are reasonable boon to suburbanites who don’t drive much. But I drive 30k miles a year. One ton pickups for all!!!
Coonman envisions himself like Joseph Stalin. Starve out the rural residents anyway possible and steal the resources to fund a fat happy urban areas.
Allen, I think you hit the mark. Of course the tax on gas will affect rural people to a much greater degree. They’ll be beating down the door to give him their guns then……barrel first, empty and smoking.
I just noticed recently that Herr Bloomenberger has the eyes of a snake. No emotion nor any other modifier you’d use to described the eyes of most people. Of course, he only wants their guns for safety.
If everything that’s happening now is not proof this country is an oligarchy I don’t know what it would take to convince you.
quote: “Of course, he only wants their guns for safety”
try this:
Of course, he only wants their guns for HIS safety
Fits better, dontchya think?
He wouldn’t live very long if he started acting like Stalin.
I was in AZ in the early 90’s when Emission testing was approved. I knew guys that had jeeps that had dropped a different engine in that could no longer be registered. I knew people with vehicles from the 60’s that went to a shop to get it detuned to pass, then bring it back to the shop to make it run right. Many had removed their air pumps or catalytic converters and had to put that stuff back.
The taxes- the money is not even the important part of it. Until the right to travel in peace is re-elevated and recognized (and enforceable) this will continue.
Putting conditions on what kind of personal conveyance you travel in, requiring overt acts (get an inspection, wear a seat belt, wear a helmet, wear a nomex suit over 3 inches of bubble wrap, wear crotchless panties- or else), is all of the same tyranny as gun control or mandatory vaccination or any other mandatory religious observance. Because that’s what they really are- demands to bow down to a ruler who believes himself an earthly god.
William Tell was perhaps the greatest hero of western civilization. He stood up and said no. And faced the consequences, and didn’t back down according to the legend. He didn’t make a big deal of it- he just ignored the law of the illicit ruler and prepared to sell his everything for something greater.
Calling the right to travel by car (or anything) a “privilege” is an affront to civilization, an assertion of godhood and a right to rule over sovereign people.
The state’s legitimate interests end entirely if no quantifiable harm to a real person has occurred. These fiat acts of legislation are all exercised against people doing things they are fundamentally able to do under nature and nature’s god- and acts fundamentally despotic and tyrannical, and all are usurpations to the natural rights of a free sovereign people.
Ernie said……”Calling the right to travel by car (or anything) a “privilege” is an affront to civilization, an assertion of godhood and a right to rule over sovereign people.”
Bravo! It’s amazing how many people, including so called “conservatives,” have been brainwashed to buy that “privilege” lie. It’s a RIGHT, only subject to revocation if that right is abused, to the danger or detriment of others.
I doubt anybody would object to a driver’s license if it was legitimate- a certification of MINIMUM qualifications to use the taxpayer’s roads. But it’s part of a control scheme. And it is imperative that it be rolled way back to inside its proper channels.
I have often wondered…did the thought of licensing horse riders and buggy drivers cross the minds of the writers of the Constitution? What is so different about motorcars that requires them to only be driven by a licensed driver? Control, yep, that’s it, the Progressives found a way to sneak a means of control of individual rights in to what the Founders would have considered inviolable territory.
My Dad recounted the getting of is first driving license. They lived in a rural area of Nevada, east of Reno by a fair bit. It was his twelfth birthday and his Dad said “Son, we need to g and get yuor driver’s license today” Sure, Dad. So they went into town, the county seat, walked up to the clerk’s desk, and my Grandpa said “my boy is twelve today ad we;d like to get his driving license”. She took out a form, he decscribed it as abut the size of a large file card, 5 x 7 I guess… they filled in the blanks, name, address, date of birth, etc, put it back down in top of the desk in front of the clerk. It might have been in duplicate, with carbon paper between the two sheets. She looked ot over checking things had been properly filled in. She said “that will be twenty five cents, please”. Grandpa took out a quarter, placed it on the desk, she removed the top page, stamped it with a rubber stamp, handed the top one to my Dad, they turned and left. He drove home. Of course he’d been running the wagon and team, tractrors, (when they did run) some of the derelict cars they had on the farm. Two years later, when the schoolistrict bouht a bus for the kids that lived furthest out, Dad was the bus driver. THey lied furthest out, so it made sense for Dad to drive the bus in, collect everyone on the way, then drop them off on the away back home. The kids all broughttheir rifles along on the bus, too, cause they liked having plinking contests at lunchtime His youngest sister, by the tie she was about eight would regularly outshoot almost all the boys. Made them mad, but there was onlu one ting they could do about it.. get better. Which few bothered to do. She could outshoot all the femily excepting their Mom (my Grandma) and her older brother Paul..
To think how far down the rabbit hole we’ve fallen in less than a hundred years………
Ah man, Tio- we’ve lost so much- and most alive today will never even realize it.
I knew an older guy from MO. when I was a kid- He told me about his first license: Went down to the local drug store in town and bought it.
Just shows how tyranny progresses: They get their foot in the door by making you get a driver’s license or a gun registration, which seems innocuous at first…..then they gradually ramp things up to the point of total control and no one bats an eye- in fact, not only do they not bat an eye, but your neighbors would think YOU are a terrible criminal criminal if you did not comply!
Nunz, my grandfather was killed by a drunk after he got out of his truck so my dad went to work at age 10 to support the family. He bought a DL at the local drug store and made those several day runs with the store owner to Odessa in an old T model truck or some similar. There weren’t even paved roads at the time. No doubt it was an adventure traveling through the desert.
8, the only thing I would have regretted about living at that time, would be to have to see the way things have become now.
I know an old guy in his 90’s who used to drive a truck back when he was young- well before interstates- Driving from NY to FL all on two-lane roads. I can only imagine the images that must still be in his head- when you’d go through a town…you’d actually go through a town….right down main street. Imagine how many between NY and FL?!
Nunz, I was 20 years old and there was only a place here and there that was I 20. I grew up driving a truck on 2 lanes and occasionally, four lane roads, sometimes separated. Now that was driving in high style.
If I were the king of the motor vehicle department, those who bought a new vehicle would have to go through the entire licensing procedure if they had gotten a single ticket and/or been involved in a single accident. That would make those well-heeled enough to buy new vehicles frequently drive better likewise.
I’m more worried about the people driving $800 multi-colored beaters! (And they’re usually the ones who don’t have insurance nor anything to attach for the damages they cause….and are likely to be under the influence of meth or prescription drugs).
When you see a newer, expensive wrecked vehicle…they are most often the victim of the above…not the perpetrator. (Source: Years in the junk car busy-ness)
Rights are permanent and not revocable. Any “right” that can be revoked is only a privilege.
Not that any government has a problem conflating the two. Even the BoR is BS as it should be called the Bill of Privileges, since the government claims the “right’ to suspend yours whenever it wants.
Any right can be revoked by the simple expedient of revoking the life of the claimant. Privilege is something I may grant to another person over something I own and control.
Until you are canceled you always have the ability to politely say NO, that violates my rights, or more to the point “F*ck Off and die”.
The Bill of Rights should be called the Bill of Prohibitions as it delineates a basic set of things which legitimate government may not touch.
I for one am tired of the defeatism. Libertarianism, sadly, is rotten and lousy with it.
What is needed is courage- which has been sorely lacking in these united States for 100 years or more. Free men will stand up one at a time and be martyred until they finally all stand up in sufficient numbers to make it clear they’ve had way more than enough.
I think it was John Adams said “if we don’t all hang togther, we will surely all hang separately”.
Does that mean that those convicted of crimes would be allowed to take their guns to prison with them and be free to travel while incarcerated?
Think of it as universal at large sentences.
Eric, do you ever notice how the media (local & regional) works with state leftist politicians? One observation I made Last year and my wife agreed was the I-81 boondoggle. All you heard in the papers and local media how I-81 was dangerous due to the multiple wrecks daily. We needed to raise gas taxes on the adjacent counties to fix it. Well, the tax was raised an extra 7 cents. Since the deed was done, no more mention of I-81 wrecks ( even though they are still happen). Like I explained to her, manufacture a “crises” to sucker enough lemmings to get pick pocketed and presto another tax! And what the gullible people fail to realize is that the gas taxes are held by those gas companies in interest bearing accounts paid to Richmond every quarter. Then paid to Coonman’s state treasury and then paid out to fund state government projects. Since the insane and crooked urban area politicians now control the legislators, guess what areas will now get all the extra funding? It sure as hell will not be anywhere near I-81. To sum it up: SUCKERS!!!!!
few years back my county had a bellot item just for us. The library csystem claimed they needed more money for new employees, computer equipment, books…. the usual laundry list of lies. I voted against it, sadly only once. It passed, adding another cent to our sales tax rate.
Two months after that new tax assed, I happened to drive past the libray headquarters comples… and noticed that half the Ford vans we had in the fleet were not there any more…. they had been replaced by about a dozen brand new models… and now had dazzling (read: expensive” graphjics all over their sides and back.. nearly a full wrap). Those vans then were around $45K per copy, times fifteen… $675K, about half of the increase we had been hornswoggled into granting them. The old vans were surplussed off, every one of them clean, late modeal low miieage… for a fraction of their market value.
are gubmit werkin fer usssss…. yeah, right.
Why the hell do they even have liberries anymore? Everyone now has a liberry in their pocket or on their desk (I’m typing this from mine). What used to entail several hours, between time spent traveling and locating books and looking stuff up, every time I needed to know something, now takes on average less than a minute to find, from the comfort of my own home.
Oh…wait…yeah…without liberries, where would baby-mamas park their rug-rats for free day care and to have them read stories by drag queens? Gee…talk about vital services!
And this is why we will never be free: People, even when given the choice, vote to perpetuate this, and to obligate their neighbors with it’s cost. The “consent of the governed”- even if you don’t consent to be governed!
Add to the $700 [now $780 with the new inspection fee] the cost of getting inspected and re-inspected — Time is also money.
Have noticed lately that the Governor is beginning to look a lot like “W” in his press photos? Just another “ferret-face” politician being a complete dick to the populace. At least Trump has some personality beyond being a polyester-pant-suit-ferret-face-hag.
Trump has the personality of the narcissistic megalomaniac that he has always been.
There’s a new book about this: American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power by Andrea Bernstein.
Texas has done something like this recently. Our wonderful state legislature approved tying vehicle registration renewal to passing the requisite inspections (“safety” only for some cars and in most of Texas, emission and “safety” in some areas). So now, the AGWs can nail you for “driving with expired registration” due to not passing the blasted emission inspection. Ever had a nagging fuel trim fault that pops up from time to time? Yep, if it pops up before taking it in for the emission inspection, it fails, AND it gets logged in the Texas inspection computer’s database. So, any shop that looks at your car has to fail it unless that failure has been addressed. All this in Texas, the state some consider amongst the automotive-friendly. Oh, it’s for clean air and the children, won’t you think about the children?
Meanwhile, north of the Red River, in Oklahoma, no inspections at all. I do not see reports of vehicles belching clouds of toxic fumes, or falling to pieces and causing wrecks in OKC…imagine that? No inspections and no problems.
I’ve never considered Tornadoville before, but it sounds like my kinda state
Thanks Cott!
I live in the Houston metro. The small time rat shop inspection place I go to said they don’t even bother looking at “emissions” anymore. If no CEL is on, no problem and there are some additives or other tricks to get it turned off briefly.
Keeping that in mind as well
Thanks as well Brazos
I can neither confirm nor deny using one of those sane inspection shops in my neck of the Southeast Texas woods 🙂
They’ll just pass a law allowing the AGWs to check your dashboard lights for proper function and make a lit CEL a towable offence.
those same people will happily spray Roundup on their lawns cause they’re too lazy to pull the weeds up, where the stuff remains in the soil ,or washed off into the waterways, and does NOT break down. That suff is a strong neurotoxin, and does not break down easily in the body.
ya think them gummitnyayhoos are really out for our SAAAAAAaaaafffeeeteeeee? Duh , I don’t…..
Eric, I used to think that Kali was about as evil a state as one could find. Your state however, is clearly more “advanced.” Why don’t you leave?
My friends who chose to stay in Kali often accuse me of “running away,” while they have chosen to “stay and fight.” To which I alway reply…..”and how’s that working out for you?” 😉
Morning, Mike!
I know… I probably should. But the idea of picking up sticks makes my teeth ache. The last five years have been one major life stress after the next and the truth is I am feeling old and tired and the thought of starting over somewhere else just defeats me.
Know what you mean. I did it twenty-three years ago. Easier then. Good luck!
Don’t let it defeat you, Eric. I was almost at the point of defeat about three years ago. No job. I am not sure, but I think you could do what you are doing almost anywhere. I wouldn’t live in VA if you paid me $150k a year. In Texas, you have some wide open spaces, 70 mph 2 lane speed limits, and some pretty hot chicks running around. Nevada isn’t bad either, though the prices are a bit higher. Okahoma is low priced and wide open. Chicks not as good in OKC, but seem to be nicer in the rural areas. Take some time, travel some. Its worth it.
There is plenty of opportunity here in the north country. I just bought up 15 city lots, 3 houses, 4 garages, and a shop for $12k, and other costs are fairly low. North Dakota gun control is almost nonexistent- they went to Constitutional carry last year. And They dont treat car owners like tax donkeys. Minnesota- much less so but when you’re close enough to ND its easier to ignore them.
I am currently up to my armpits in white powdery stuff, but it must be cocaine or something since Al Gore told us years ago there would be no more snow by 2016…
Ernie, South Dakota here. Our new first female governor is talking a little now about safety inspections and vehicle emissions in Sioux Falls and Rapid City. Also allowing medical mary jane… but wants hemp for the farmers to grow again. It is all a control issue for them. We control you, you don’t. Baby steps toward the reckoning that is coming. I am convinced all politicians are marxists.
Doesn’t sound like constitutional carry to me: “North Dakota is a ‘shall issue’ state for concealed carry. … Open carry of a loaded handgun is permitted only by individuals with a valid concealed weapons license. Non permit holders may carry one hour before sunrise until one hour after sunset provided the firearm is unloaded and in plain sight.”
wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_North_Dakota
a few years ago a chap out where I am “Pacific NorthWet) was weary of being an abesntee landlord, as he had inherited theold family farm.in North Dakota. Had some tennant issues, had to go back spend a few weeks rehabbin gthe home. I seem to remember it was forty acres, former dairy farm, barn, loafing shed,millking bay, cold room, single axle trucks, huge shop, all the tractors, harvesters, etc, full on miling system, two story four bedroom home wiht full basement, woodlot that provided the winter’s firewood right on the place.. I asked him how muhc? Sixty thousand cash, ir I could carry some of it. It was about halfway between Bismarck and Fargo. Not in a town.
I asked him what sort of work is available for income around there. He said………….. nothing wthin several miles.
I passed. I now how cold it gets in numbers, but not in realsy, as the worst I’d evern experienced was up on Mouunt Rainier whenit was minus six eff.
Dairy farm? Sounds more like a popsicle farm! (If ND were a little freer, that’d be tempting for that price…. at least ya could enjoy it for the two days of summer!)
The cold is what keeps out the masses and makes places like MT, WY, and ND liveable. Otherwise EVERBODY would move here and turn it into another socialist hellhole.
Anon, it’s worked on me. Getting my hands frostbitten in 83 was the icing on the cake. It stayed around 0 to -5 for a month in west Texas, the worst cold spell I can remember.
Last fall I became unpleasantly acquainted with something called “chilblains” after lifting a bunch of ice out of a horse trough with my bare hands, on a sunny 50 degree day.
Cold, dirt, animals, hicks, trees, all seem to scare the bejezus out of most friends I left behind when I moved into the woods. The few that came to visit, most only ever did once and the feedback from others suggests they were extremely uncomfortable being away from all the city conveniences. “It’s dark”, “It smelled funny”, “My shoes got dirty”. God help these people if life throws them a curveball like an extended power outage, natural disaster or half-calf-lattes somehow become unavailable.
Good god, “it’s dark”. Yeah, I have all sort of high power lights but don’t use them unless I need to. I like it dark. Some city friends were visiting and after supper we’re sitting outside just looking at the stars and having a beer. We got into a conversation about the Milky Way when one of their kids asked “Why don’t we have the Milky Way?” They tried to explain it was over them too but due to street lights you couldn’t see it and in their neighborhood, sitting outside with cars going by leaves a lot to be desired.
Smells funny here too, like trees and grass and weeds and the occasional pile of horse and cow shit…..and often…..skunk.
If your dirty shoes bother you, just wait and hold still. The dogs love new shoes to “clean”……your legs too.
The old stockman says: “[cattle manure] smells like money”
I smell money from the NE when the wind is right from a gas plant 4 miles away. It’s somebody else’s money.
I dunno- the cold doesn’t seem to have kept the scum out of MN., Canada,……
Nunz, you’re probably right but it’s hard to get rid of politicians.
I feel ya Brother. But why stay in a state that does not want you there? There are many other wonderful places to live that are not as “progressive” as Virginnie. At some point you have to vote with your feet and get the hell out of dodge. Me, I fled Detroit in 83. Screw that BS iceburg full of dimwit libtards. I moved to Charlotte NC then when the libtards ruined it I moved to the ocean in SC. So far so good. Liberalism is a cancer and I have no intent to stay and “fight the loosing battle with valor” where I’m not welcome. ‘Eff em. there will always be a place where “our kind” are welcome and regarded. Go there! “Go Galt” Once enough of us are there it will be a lovely place to prosper and live as we wish.
Auric, every time I hear about moving I realize the person saying this has no conception of living on land that’s been in the family for many generations and has ties to the ground. How do you move a ranch and farming operation? If they had that much money they could go sit on the Riviera but working people really couldn’t do that either.
Leaving farm and ranch land as well as rural communities isn’t like being the kind of person who lives in an apartment of suburban house and moving to another apartment or suburban house. It’s not just a living but a lifestyle and may have been that way since the 1600’s. It’s the thing some call “roots”. They’d rather kill a few thousand politicians than do that and it appears they may have to.
“living on land that’s been in the family for many generations and has ties to the ground.”
But if you have that, you probably are OK staying……..for now.
Anyone who is comfortable and not imminently under threat probably should stay put. Never run from an unknown and unseen danger, you might run right into it.
But have a backup plan. Not a fantasy or ideal, a workable plan.
The problem with packing up and moving is that it might only provide temporary relief. The next them the Democratic Party controls both the White House and Congress, they’re going to cram gun control, transgenderism, faggotry and every other insane shitlib policy down the throats of the entire country, including Texas and Montana and Wyoming. THAT is gonna be ugly.
This is really an urban vs. rural thing, and it’s nationwide. San Fransicko and LA ruin it for Modoc and Siskiyou. Chicago ruins it for central and southern Illinois. New York City ruins it for western and northern New York. Seattle ruins it for eastern Washington. And now northern Virginia is going to ruin it for the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge, with mug imperiousness and an air of self-righteous moral superiority. This trend has been accelerating quite drastically the past 10-15 years.
What to do??? I wish I had an answer. As easy as it is for people to say “Shoot the bastards,” unfortunately I don’t see that happening soon. Things are going to get very, very bad before they get better.
So in other words, avoid any state that either has a major metropolitan center, or is adjacent to one (or in New Jersey’s case, two of them. Damn, no wonder our state’s so fucked up!).
Packing up and moving is a lot easier when it means closing the doors and starting the engine.
Packing up and moving is a lot easier if you have no roots, no family, no friends, no history with the land. Probably is the same reason so many independent truckers are from rural areas.
Lucky you! Sometimes, I entertain purchasing a camper myself. That way, like you, I can just hop in and get the hell out of dodge whenever necessary.