Vehicle Registration

[pgackerman]

Just received my vehicle registration notice and started wondering:

• Why do I have to register my vehicles every year?
  What benefit do I get for registering my vehicle?

Any ideas people?  I'm looking for a solid answer other than you'll get a ticket if you don't.  At least with normal taxes I can pretend the money is being used to fight actual crime, put out fires, maintain roads, and check restaurants for food safety.

Now to answer why I'm taking y'all down this rabbit hole.  Remember the Ferguson riots?  One article examining causes of continuous poverty which fueled the riots was the enforcement of traffic laws -- such as expired registrations.  Paraphrasing an example, a cop pulls someone over for a minor offence such as a broken taillight.  This turns into a full analysis of the car with tickets for the taillight, a headlight, improperly installed baby seat, etc, etc, and expired registration.  All of a sudden the car is impounded with daily fees, the driver can't get to work, and they've received tickets for (at least) hundreds of dollars.  So why do we have special registration fees?

Here are some articles on the subject.  There are many, many more:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-missouri-shooting-tickets-insight/in-riot-hit-ferguson-traffic-fines-boost-tension-and-budget-idUSKBN0GJ2CB20140819
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/08/ferguson-disparities-traffic-stops.html
https://jalopnik.com/this-f***ed-up-michigan-traffic-law-traps-drivers-in-po-1795020083

[Raydar]

... So why do we have special registration fees?

The short answer? Because they can.

They will likely say that they use the proceeds to maintain this, that, or the other.

In Metro Atlanta counties, it's also probably a way to ensure that the car is subjected to its annual emissions inspection. (Which is a "whole 'nother" load of BS, but I'll leave that one alone, for now.)
Charlie may be able to add a better (and less cynical) answer.

[Wreck It Ralph]

Them stickers are expensive and they have to justify that many employees.

[GTRS Fiero]

Hmmm.  Benefit?  It is about control and money.  Nothing for your benefit.

That having been said, I see many vehicles sporting plates that expired years ago.  Nothing happens to those people.

[Wreck It Ralph]

After getting stopped one day after my birthday I started refusing to put the sticker on. I just acted surprised when pulled over. Can be why I’ve been pulled over more than 100 times. I eventually grew out of it though.

[GTRS Fiero]

Imwas pulled over in a previous Fiero.  The cop insisted that the car was hot, and harrassed me for a while.  He then accused me of building the car in my garage.  He finished by threatening to find where I'd stolen the Fiero, and to send me to prison.  Never heard from him again.  Maybe that had something to do with the video shown to the prosecuting attorney, who is my client.

[Fierofool]

Motor vehicle ad valorem taxes are supposed to be considered as a user tax and were to go to the operation of the city, county, and state DOT, just as gasoline taxes.  They have to get the money from somewhere to pay those 5 guys standing watch over the guy painting the sign post.  I know that my city receives a yearly percentage of ad valorem taxes on the mobile homes and vehicles registered within the city and a smaller percentage of those registered within the county. 

I don't know where the taxes go in recent years and I don't know why some counties have higher taxes.  There is an ad valorem tax on such things as mobile homes, which certainly don't run up and down the road every day.  When we owned the mobile home in Duluth, it actually had a DMV title and we had to purchase a yearly decal and it had to be displayed on a permanent part of the home, near the main doorway.  We were taxed on the square footage, which included the tongue length.  The home was 24 x 48 with a 4 foot draw tongue, so they taxed us on a 24 x 52.  They agreed to reduce the taxes once I proved to them that the tongues were removable and stored underneath.   

When I lived in Gwinnett, I bought a 71 Datsun pickup with a blown engine.  It was from DeKalb county and had been parked for close to 10 years. After rebuilding the engine I went to register it.  They refused unless I paid the back taxes for all the years it had been sitting.  We were in the leadup to closing on our home in Barrow, so I waited.  When I went to the Barrow DMV, I only had to pay taxes for 1 year.  They said it was up to the individual counties as to how they taxed.  I do understand that it is now a statewide law that even though the car isn't registered, you must continue to pay the yearly ad valorem tax on it. 

One way of looking at taxes on personal property is that it's rent.  You don't own it.  The government does.  If you don't pay your 'rent' you can't use it, or the government may even take it. 

A cynical way of looking at why you have to register every year is so that you can drive around with your cell phone by your side, being tracked by Google, so they can report it to the government, so the government knows your every move.  Can you say "Precursor to being chipped?" 

The registration number itself is a method of readily assigning ownership to a particular vehicle.  For accidents.  For theft.  For suspicious vehicles, kidnappings, robberies and the like.  For locating a vehicle and owner when they may have eluded or were unable to be stopped for some reason. 

[GTRS Fiero]

Why, then, do I have to pay for it, if I don't own it?

I have long thought that the justice system is verry rigged.  If, as stated, a person has to go to court, court is only during working hours.  Likely, a day off work will be required, along with a costly trip to court.  If you may win, they make you pay a fee, and schedule for another court, another day.  Usually, you have to go through 3 rounds of this, with a day off, costly transport, and a fee, each time.  It's far less expensive to just pay, and move on.

All that tracking?  It's never in your favor.  It is only ever used against you.  The GPS tracking in the phones is laughable.  The lie was that it was for 911.  They always require an address.  They are never able to track, using my phone.  If you car is stolen, they will scan your car indefinately, driving right by it, and never notice.  The only purpose of those cameras that scan is to levy fees against you.  Driver licenses.  Tracking and fees.  The licenses are not used for anything else.