This will raise my registration on a '97 minivan to over 400 bucks.
Fucking bastards. Just another reason (in a long list) to get off my ass and get out of here.
[url]http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/6129505.htm[/url]
California on verge of tripling vehicle fee
By Ann E. Marimow
Mercury News Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO - State officials are poised to announce today that the annual vehicle license fee will triple, an increase that will help stave off deep budget cuts to local governments.
Millions of California drivers will see their fee increase, on average, from $76 a year to $234, beginning in 90 days.
State finance officials would not confirm the planned announcement. But a source familiar with the discussions said the finance department believes that the state's fiscal conditions are now dire enough to trigger a provision that allows an increase to the 1998 level.
Republican lawmakers, who oppose any tax or fee increase to plug the state's $38.2 billion deficit, threatened Thursday to file an 11th-hour legal challenge to block it.
Assemblyman John Campbell, R-Irvine, also unveiled a legal opinion from the Legislature's lawyer that calls into question whether the fee can be increased under the current conditions.
$4 billion boost
Gov. Gray Davis' budget blueprint relies on the license-fee increase to contribute $4 billion toward the state's shortfall.
``Increasing this tax may be convenient,'' said Campbell, the vice chairman of the Assembly budget committee who requested the opinion and is a part-owner of two Saab dealerships. ``But it's not right, it's not fair, and it's not legal.''
Louis Fernandez shook his head in disgust at a North San Jose gas station. ``I'm not OK with this,'' he said. ``If it were on a ballot, I would vote against it.''
Fernandez, who is newly unemployed, said he paid ``$100 and something'' to register his sun-baked 1985 Honda sedan. ``Times are already hard.''
But Wade Holden, who just this week affixed new California plates to his lipstick-red 1999 Toyota Celica, said he had no problem with the fee increase ``as long as they spend the money wisely.''
``You gotta do what you gotta do,'' he said.
Finance Director Steve Peace earlier this week defended the legality of an increase. He pointed out that the state had borrowed $11 billion to stay afloat through August and compared California's finances to a ``company that is on the brink.''
``We have never been in a place before where we are literally running 100 percent on other people's money,'' he said.
When the California economy was flush in the late 1990s, state officials lowered the vehicle license fee by two-thirds. At the time, they agreed that the fees would go back up when ``insufficient moneys were available'' to continue payments to local government.
But there has been an ongoing debate over the specific financial situation that would trigger a fee increase because of the law's vague definition of ``insufficient.''
Initial resistance
Initially, Davis opposed the fee increase and clashed with Democratic lawmakers who were pushing for it. The tax is highly unpopular. A recent poll showed that 58 percent of Californians oppose tripling the licensing fee.
The fee assesses vehicle owners 2 percent of a vehicle's purchase price the first year. It drops each year as the value of the vehicle declines.
In March, attorneys for the governor and Controller Steve Westly set the stage for the fee to be increased without requiring the Legislature to vote on it or Davis to sign it.
The legal opinion concluded Peace could raise the fee based on the state's cash flow and payment obligations.
But according to the new opinion from the Legislative counsel, the fee can be raised only when the state literally runs out of cash and can no longer make payments to local government. Even then, the opinion states, the state controller has the responsibility to reassess the state's cash flow each month and adjust the fee accordingly.
In addition to Campbell, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a political and legal watchdog group, said it would file a lawsuit soon after the trigger is pulled.