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Posted on 09/03/2009 5:56:31 AM PDT by NavyCanDo
SEATTLE -- Washington state parks and Stan Johnson have something in common -- both are on financial life support.
"All my people are laid off, just trying to hang on to survive," Johnson said.
These days, every penny counts for Johnson, and no dollar goes unnoticed.
"$5 means a lot," said Johnson.
So Johnson grew suspicious when $5 disappeared from his bank account, then reappeared on his vehicle registration receipt. It stated he had donated the amount to state parks.
Johnson said no one asked whether he wanted to donate.
"You don't want to be tricked by your own state into donating something," he said.
And Johnson isn't the only one unwittingly donating his money to the state.
Under a new state law, registered car owners who renew their vehicle registration can be automatically charged for a $5 donation to state parks. The law went into effect on Sept. 1, but it didn't come without warning.
More than 4,000 notices were issued early August, prompting questions and protests.
Officials urge any drivers who do not wish to donate to state parks at the time of their vehicle registration renewal to do the math themselves prior to issuing their payment.
"If you don't wish to donate, you can just subtract $5 off of your bill when you send in your money.
(Excerpt) Read more at komonews.com ...
If they have a check box if you want to donate, that’s fine with me, but to automatically take it out without telling you, is as about as low as I can think of.
WASHINGTON PING
Glad I left that leftist hellhole.
Shame, because it is a beautiful state.
But just like everywhere else. Parasites move in and destroy what is good.
And when people walk into banks with panties over their heads and with guns in their hands, they are merely asking for a donation from said banks. The banks are free to refuse.
Donation!? — it’s a tax.
I donate to Duke’s Clam Chowder Emporium every time I visit Seattle but that’s about it.
The nice notes being sent in are from members of the National Endowment for the Arts.
<Glad I left that leftist hellhole.
<Shame, because it is a beautiful state
Same here. I’d move back (but not to Seattle) in a heartbeat if the leftists didn’t ruin it for all the right thinking people in the rest of the state.
Way back when, mail-order Albums were a big business, with BGW having a form that if you did not mail within a certain time frame, resulted in you ‘buying’ an album - whether you wanted it or not. The default status was that you were buying the album, unless you could prove you had opted out before some due date.
Federal laws were changed to protect the consumer from these types of business practices. Now Washington State has decided to subvert Federal Law - because the donation appears to be a default action. Why only $5, why not $50, 500 or 5,000? Because they believed that they could steal $5 from every citizen and get away with it.
It’s a shame that the person responsible cannot be charged with a Felony (# of licenses x $5) and go to jail, loose his home, his job, his retirement and possessions.
Do that a couple times, and this sort of ‘shake down’ will come to a stop, real soon.
Washington State is corrupt far beyond what you can even imagine.
Washington car licenses were once loaded with fees and taxes, driving the yearly cost to be one of the highest in the Nation. The people, angry as Hell, got together and gathered enough signatures to fight it. We passed a $30 car license with no added taxes not approved by voters. But that was taken to court by Olympia who fought to keep the taxes, and in time they lost and the people won. But since then Olympia has in ways that skirt the law, imposed hidden taxes, like this one. They can get away from it by calling it a “donation”.
At least those mail-order deals made it clear up front what the terms were.
Gov’t just taking money without notification is very different - kinda like buying an album with a credit card, then discovering an additional purchase on your monthly statement with a footnote “if you’d like to listen to the other album we bought for you with your money, go to your local public library and borrow it there.”
..a few years ago, Hudson County,NJ, lost 60,000 birth certificates...STOLEN (one was mine) and didn't notify any of those who it would effect. Then they introduced in the state mandatory photo auto licenses....one of your key identification papers?..you got it...BC, Now before the lost of the BC's I had cause to get a few copies of my BC for travel,.. passport ID..and such...now when I went to get my new mandatory NJ drivers license I was informed that the red sealed raised notarized mark of my copies were no longer a valid form of ID. I had to go to the capitol, Trenton to get a new approved retyped official form ....at a cost of $19...(copies available for just two dollars more)...of course you could have waited a few weeks to mail an application to Trenton to get a new version of your BC...for about $35...if you wanted to take the chance of driving illegally while waiting for your new improved drivers license and got stopped...the new fine was increased to $120 driving without proper ID. You see, Hudson county NJ, is also the place where bogus tickets were sent out through the mail....just at random, by going through auto license plates issued in the state. The offense were illegal parking,minor traffic,but mainly parking, even though you never been...it was thought better to just send in the cash,($40-$60) rather, take a day off to fight it and waste time and money traveling to the court to fight it.
And there isn’t even a box to check to say NO. Or anything that tells you how to not pay.
Their official position seems to be that you should look at the amount you owe, and send in $5 less.
Who would ever think to do that, unless they were specifically told to do so?
Close your bank account before renewing the license. after getting the license open a new account at a different bank.
Or:
its lumpy mattress time, and pay cash for everything.
(without permision donations)
Didn’t we used to call this “theft.”
Their official position seems to be that you should look at the amount you owe, and send in $5 less.
Who would ever think to do that, unless they were specifically told to do so?
For crying out loud, this is outrageously ridiculous. Calling it a "donation" doesn't make it anything other than what it is...an unauthorized tax. Be aware that when you renew your registration, you need to deduct $5 from the amount you're told to pay.
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