Chief
04-12-2007, 06:54 AM
Might as well face it folks, we just got screwed royally by the Washington State Legislature, and the Gubnor is about to put a bow on it when she signs the bill that is going to allow the City of Amerika's Vancouver to collect a "modest" $20 license fee on EACH of your registered vehicles here in the city limits.
That money will be targeted into a Special Transportation District along the Fourth Plain corridor, and will be spent on Loot Rail and other special projects that the City will now be able to fund without worrying about asking you. Clarkblog.org and the Sensibilist.com have been harping on this and warning you that this was coming for months, and now it is here.
And mark my words that this illegal fee won't stay at $20 for long either. Once "Rolls" Royce and his willing sheep on City Council get that Transportation District shaped out, they can boost that fee up to $100 a license plate, simply with a bang of Pollard's gavel, and I predict that will happen within the year.
So I am calling right now for everyone to do a couple of things.
1. Wait as long as you can, and are comfortable with, until you pay this illegal fee. Make the City incur the expense of billing you, and sending you as many reminders to pay up as possible, before you actually pay this illegal tax. Personally I plan on waiting until they threaten to sue before I cough up a penny....which brings me to...
2. When you pay this fee, pay it in person, and pay it with rolls of pennies. The penny is still legal US Currency, and the City will look like even bigger idiots than they already are if they refuse to take your payment. Make sure they are properly rolled, and that your count is correct. It's not up to you to prove that your pennies are all there either. It's up to them to prove that they are not, and I think it would be infinitely amusing to see them re-bill someone for the $ .02 they were short on a $20 illegal tax bill.
3. If they refuse to take pennies, then try again with rolls of nickels. If they refuse the nickles, try again with dimes. The point is to not allow the city to block you with BS bureaucratic rules that only make life easy on themselves.
Other than that, stand the hell by, because things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Let us not forget the other piece of Identity Clark County magic that is pending out there, and that is the City of Amerika's Vancouver's pledge to lift the levy on Residential Property Taxes as soon as the Washington State Supreme Court finds I-747 unconsitutional. City Council has already passed the resolution to do so, and ICC has pledged to help them make it happen.
But chances are most of the people in town just don't or won't care, and will take the same tack on this that they did on the outrageous assessments the County started handing out last summer...or to quote one of my neighbors from then...
"Well, they must need the money."
Sound Politics often talks about the Washington State Democratic "Blue Wave" that's coming..this is just the first tangible sign of an incoming Blue Tsunami my friends. Almost time to head for higher ground...
Stout Hearts...
Chief
That money will be targeted into a Special Transportation District along the Fourth Plain corridor, and will be spent on Loot Rail and other special projects that the City will now be able to fund without worrying about asking you. Clarkblog.org and the Sensibilist.com have been harping on this and warning you that this was coming for months, and now it is here.
And mark my words that this illegal fee won't stay at $20 for long either. Once "Rolls" Royce and his willing sheep on City Council get that Transportation District shaped out, they can boost that fee up to $100 a license plate, simply with a bang of Pollard's gavel, and I predict that will happen within the year.
So I am calling right now for everyone to do a couple of things.
1. Wait as long as you can, and are comfortable with, until you pay this illegal fee. Make the City incur the expense of billing you, and sending you as many reminders to pay up as possible, before you actually pay this illegal tax. Personally I plan on waiting until they threaten to sue before I cough up a penny....which brings me to...
2. When you pay this fee, pay it in person, and pay it with rolls of pennies. The penny is still legal US Currency, and the City will look like even bigger idiots than they already are if they refuse to take your payment. Make sure they are properly rolled, and that your count is correct. It's not up to you to prove that your pennies are all there either. It's up to them to prove that they are not, and I think it would be infinitely amusing to see them re-bill someone for the $ .02 they were short on a $20 illegal tax bill.
3. If they refuse to take pennies, then try again with rolls of nickels. If they refuse the nickles, try again with dimes. The point is to not allow the city to block you with BS bureaucratic rules that only make life easy on themselves.
Other than that, stand the hell by, because things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Let us not forget the other piece of Identity Clark County magic that is pending out there, and that is the City of Amerika's Vancouver's pledge to lift the levy on Residential Property Taxes as soon as the Washington State Supreme Court finds I-747 unconsitutional. City Council has already passed the resolution to do so, and ICC has pledged to help them make it happen.
But chances are most of the people in town just don't or won't care, and will take the same tack on this that they did on the outrageous assessments the County started handing out last summer...or to quote one of my neighbors from then...
"Well, they must need the money."
Sound Politics often talks about the Washington State Democratic "Blue Wave" that's coming..this is just the first tangible sign of an incoming Blue Tsunami my friends. Almost time to head for higher ground...
Stout Hearts...
Chief