Read My Lips: "Regressive Taxes"

We're not wealthy. Far from it. We're a paycheck to paycheck living, credit card debt having, typical American middle class family. At the end of every month that checkbook balance gets alarmingly low and we don't have money for extras.

So when we got an $85 ticket last week for not having the tab on our front license plate, I was wondering how we were going to pay it. And enraged. $85 for not having a sticker on the front of my car, but the back? $85 even after I can prove that we have the tabs and paid for the tabs? That is nothing short of ridiculous. Whatever happened to warnings? Give us a chance to replace the sticker. If we don't, then it's time for a ticket.

I was looking for applicable state law and found an article on how police are "cracking down" on license plate violations to make up for the loss of tax revenue. It's called "Reverend, Step Away From The License Plate Cover" by Nick Coleman. Here's an excerpt:

". . . This is predatory revenue-ing.

Let's not call this kind of thing a surcharge. Let's call it by its real name: a rip-off.

Regressive taxes disguised as user fees, assessments and surcharges fall most heavily on families whose budgets are stretched to the breaking point (THAT'S ME!) while politicians crow about cutting taxes. The state now receives $400 million in such rip-offs, and they are fraudulent (PREACH IT BROTHER!).

So clip and save this Coleman Caution and read it the next time a politician brags that he/she hasn't raised taxes:

"'No New Taxes' is a slogan that means not restoring progressive rates of income taxation on wealthy citizens. For everyone else in Minnesota, surcharges, user fees, assessments and sharp increases in real estate taxation rates will apply."

We are going to meet with a hearing officer and see if we can get it reduced to a warning. But I am not optimistic.