Free Republic

Vehicle Registration Is One Tax Increase... While the new year is close, the celebration may end abruptly on Jan. l. Honolulu residents can expect to see huge tax increases go into effect in 2006, including higher property assessments, increased sewer fees and a big hike in vehicle registration fees. Traci Loa...about the new fees. Loa drives a 7-year-old Chevrolet van. Like every other car owner on Oahu, this year Loa will have to pay 50 percent more to register her vehicle. "It's irritating," said Loa. "I mean, I could do so much more with the money... The vehicle tax hike...

A San Francisco assemblywoman wants California motorists to help east the state’s $17.5 billion budget deficit by tripling vehicle registration fees for the next two years. Democrat Carole Midgen said her Assembly Bill 1753 would raise the $9 billion that the state owes local governments, sparing the beleaguered state budget from shouldering an additional burden. “When the state Legislature enacted the VLF rebates, we were giving back (to the local governments) surpluses that we had,” said Alan LoFaso, Midgen’s chief of staff. “But now we have a deficit.” LoFaso blamed the state’s current budget crisis on a 1998 law that...