Friday, December 31, 2010

What Will They Think of Next?

My husband went to the Department of Revenue yesterday to renew the truck and trailer tags. Now, this is a little truck and just a 5 X 8 trailer we use to haul livestock and hay and whatever needs hauling . . . This isn't, however; about the unbelievable wait, which frequently results in the opportunity to finally be at the window, only to discover some piece of the required paperwork is missing. This is about something that I cannot even Google to see when it became part of our biannual dreaded tradition we call vehicle registration and/or license renewal. As my husband sat at the table while I fixed dinner, he began reading the list of fees, we'd paid. Perhaps if we had a television, we wouldn't entertain ourselves in such a manner, but, I couldn't help but take note of a couple of items in the list. On both our truck and trailer receipts were charges for an agent fee. Since I can't find this specific code on the state.gov page and as I mentioned it was on both, I'm guessing the agent fee has something to do with collecting the fee. The truck had an addition fee for railroad crossing added to the regular traditional fee of registration for "beyond local." I don't know the percentage of the railroad crossing fee, but the percentage added for the agent is about 15%. The trailer, on the other hand, had no charge for railroad crossings, but there was a re-issuance fee for an embossed plate. We hadn't lost the other one, but the state changed the design, and apparently passed the expense on to us. The added fees to obtain and pay the required fees on the trailer amounted to more than 20% of the required registration fee. I believe America has officially surpassed both ancient Egypt and ancient Rome. Since licensing is required to be legally on the road, we have what appears to be Surcharges on Registration fees from the Department of Revenue . . . We paid our taxes on all this fun at the courthouse, same day. I can't even imagine a full itemized bureaucratic breakdown on that bill!
. . . that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh . . . Torah of Holy Scripture
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. New Testament

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