The state of Arizona just mailed me my vehicle registration renewal form for my Camry.
Total damage for two years of registration: $427.49, which includes $50 for my Veteran’s plate (the money goes to help various veteran-related organizations, which I support).
While the $365.82 for a “vehicle license tax” is a bit steep, what irks me is that they charge me $0.42 for postage to mail me the bill. You’d think that’d be considered a “cost of doing business” for the state, and they wouldn’t pass it along to the taxpayer so blatantly. That said, it is nice that they show it as a line-item, so I know exactly what my costs are.
They list what percentage of my vehicle license tax goes to various purposes — highways, roads, and general funds for the county and city. Oddly enough, more money goes to the county and city general funds than it goes to county and city roads. That’s annoying, considering how many [expletive] potholes Tucson has.
Also strange is that they list how to compute the tax savings for having an “alternative fuel vehicle”: multiply the existing VLT by 0.02381, which would bring my tax to $8.71 if I had an alternative-fuel vehicle. Paying less than $9 for two years of registration and taxes certainly is appealing, but there’s no places around here for refuelling an alternative-fuel vehicle. Maybe I could get a natural gas hookup if I had my own house, but otherwise it’s a no-go. It seems really strange that the tax would be essentially negligible for owning such a vehicle, particularly when alternative-fuel vehicles cause the same wear-and-tear of roads that gas/diesel vehicles do. Go figure.
I also find it really odd that they have a section where one can consent to release personal information contained in my driver license and vehicle record, and that such consent “applies to all requests from any and all individuals or organicationz for any purpose, until revoked…in writing”. The form provided makes no mention of the fact that such consent is completely optional, and that the default state is “keep my information private”. The online form for renewal has the same section, but mentions that it’s optional. Why would they even put such a section? Why would anyone willingly consent to releasing their license and vehicle records to the general public, with no restrictions?