Penalized for driving a fuel efficient car

[AtomicPunk]

This thread reminds me of an old song by the mighty Van Halen called "In and Out". It was about how much they charge you to be born and then they charge you again when you die. "They get you comin'in, and they got ya' going out!" And, as we've discussed here, all the time in between.

[Mark]

This thread reminds me of an old song by the mighty Van Halen called "In and Out". It was about how much they charge you to be born and then they charge you again when you die. "They get you comin'in, and they got ya' going out!" And, as we've discussed here, all the time in between.

"Nothing in life is for sure except death & taxes!"

paraphrased from Benjamin Franklin

[Cobrajet]

Yeah, they added a registration fee for EVs and hybrids here in Washington a few years ago. Right on cue, what I call the "LBT crowd" (Leaf, Bolt, and Tesla) started clutching their pearls about the extra $60 a year they had to pay.

"How dare they! Don't they know my car is literally saving the world?!"

I am generally anti-tax, but I understand this one. Nobody rides for free, and I would rather the DOL made Captain Planet pay his fair share to keep the roads up than increase Washington's gas taxes which are already second-highest in the country.

'Bubba' pays plenty to maintain the roads he uses every time he fills up his F250, and I think the tech bro with the skinny jeans, hipster glasses, man-bun, and new Model Y can afford to chip in to maintain those same roads. After all, he will very proudly tell anyone who will listen that he doesn't have to pay for gas!

One thing Washington did NOT do was assess an increased fee on gas cars that got over a certain mpg. Hope they don't think of that one!

[Car Nut]

In good ol Kentucky, we get the privledge of paying sales tax on our vehicles EVERY YEAR! Frigging cork stickers...

Same thing here in Virginia. It's called property tax. Cars, boats, motorcycles, trailers, tow dollies, houses. Yeah

[Space Wolf]

I've been participating in this project here in Oregon since 2018 that reduces your registration fees by paying per mile.

https://www.oregon.gov/odot/Programs/Pages/OReGO.aspx

Seems fair. But I can't find how the miles in Oregon are counted? Just your own administration?

[inuvik]

Seems fair. But I can't find how the miles in Oregon are counted? Just your own administration?

It uses a GPS sensor and only charges you the miles driven in the state. Any miles driven outside the state don’t count.

[Fummins]

If it makes anyone feel any better it cost me $142 to fill up my truck the other day. Almost makes a guy not want to floor it anymore. Almost...

[Dirk Diggler]

If it makes anyone feel any better it cost me $142 to fill up my truck the other day. Almost makes a guy not want to floor it anymore. Almost...

I'd pay that per gallon if I had Canada's healthcare system in return lol.

[javensbukan]

Meh. This is one of the cases where living in an advanced society basically means "paying rent." Having nice things isn't free. Roads cost what they cost to build and maintain. If they lose a revenue stream somewhere, they need to find a new one somewhere else.

I would be interested to see what would happen if they just got rid of all these different tax codes and just charged everyone a flat rate for the right to be a citizen. Being rich doesn't mean you use roads more. Being poor doesn't mean you go to the park less.

There are a few reasons why this is crappy; mainly because the person making minimum wage pays the same ‘tax’ as a millionaire would, most would probably agree that’s wildly unfair.

In fact, I wish speeding fines and parking tickets were scaled to income like they are in some countries. That way rich people can’t just break the law and pay off the hilariously small (to them) fines that are a big deal to average people, or a job ending event for people just scraping by.

[7milesout]

This thread is getting overly political. Life is about choices. Do stupid crap when you are young and you MAY pay for it the rest of your life. I hear 40+year-olds complaining that they're making minimum wage at McDonalds. Well duhhhhh. McDonalds is a place for kids to work (mainly). Sure it probably needs to be managed by an adult. What I was preached at, in school, by various adults, by my parents, by my senior relatives, my sports coaches, is to work hard when you're young and build yourself into something. Don't just sit around and wait for an opportunity or wait for someone to give you something.

There's thousands of reasons why 40+ year-olds may be working at McDonalds. But I hazard to guess that the major fraction of those reasons (like 90%) come down to having made a bad decision(s). We don't get 2 tries at life. So take advantage of and/or create opportunities when you're young. Prove you're a reliable hard worker and you'll go places. I took what I heard seriously (although those adults probably perceived it as going in one ear and out the other). I have yet to do any drugs. Those people who whine about rich people paying piddly fines for speeding tickets or the like, I hazard to guess that person has likely made bad decisions in their life.

It's not too late to make good decisions. However it could be a bit late for those good decisions to make a substantial difference in your life.

The above is your elder trying to give you young whipper snappers some advice. And no, I'm far from perfect, just ask my wife. You can choose to take it seriously, or you can whine about it and tell me I'm wrong, and then give some nonsense reasons why I'm wrong. Let's see how it goes...

Lastly - Life is not fair. I'm not rich, but I'm not poor either. I see rich dudes doing things I'd like to do. But I realize life is not fair, and what I get out of it is up to me. So, SUCK IT UP BUTTERCUP. Pull your boots on tight and go do something positive about your situation. Don't let yourself blame others for your predicaments. Take responsibility and ownership and move forward.