Car Fees

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried two months ago to simply give California drivers some of their tax money back, it had the unintended effect of temporarily bringing a state agency to a standstill. Only now are Department of Motor Vehicles managers confident that they are gaining on a backlog of hundreds of thousands of license tag renewals -- a logjam that had some motorists afraid they would be cited for driving with expired stickers. As soon as he took office Nov.

Re "Days Before Vote, Higher Vehicle Fees," Sept. 29: I hope California voters don't use the rise in vehicle fees as the basis for their vote on the recall. California auto fees have always been high, as they should be. We have the most cars; we have the most expensive cars; we have too many cars. Local police and fire departments are the primary beneficiaries of the vehicle tax. Do you want to give up that kind of protection and service to save a few dollars each week? The candidates who promise to rescind the tax have not told us how they will cover the $4.2-billion shortfall that would result.

James Gilden's comparison of driving and flying in the Travel section was well done ("Which Is Cheaper, Flying or Driving? Crunch the Numbers," Travel Insider, Sept. 7]. However, he left out something important: At most destinations, the traveler will need a car. This means renting a car or taking lots of taxis. Either involves expense, and taxis mean trouble as well. They're never there when you need them. By contrast, if you drive you have your car there; there is no additional expense.

Re "State Triples the Vehicle License Fee," June 21: Boy, it sure brought tears to my eyes thinking "that people would have to choose between a gallon of milk and registering a car," as one Republican legislator suggested. Which people would those be? Those driving the $50,000 SUVs, or the $100,000 convertibles? Why don't we simply institute a sliding scale, akin to a luxury tax, so that those who can afford large, expensive vehicles pay proportionately more to register them? While we're at it, let's make a formula that also incorporates gas mileage to determine the registration fee, so that owners of more-efficient cars pay less.

SACRAMENTO -- The day many California drivers have dreaded is about to arrive: The Davis administration is expected to triple the state's vehicle license fee by administrative order as early as today, generating billions of dollars to help close California's gaping budget hole. The average car owner can expect his or her annual so-called "car tax" bill to go up by $136.

The Assembly voted Tuesday to cut $3.5 billion from the state budget adopted in September, but only if Gov. Gray Davis agrees to an increase in the license fee on most motor vehicles. Rather than their earlier plan to triple the vehicle license fee across the board, Democrats proposed -- and the Assembly approved -- applying the increase only to vehicles worth more than $5,000.

Faced with angry reactions from local officials up and down the state, Democratic leaders of the California Legislature said Tuesday that they are prepared to raise vehicle registration fees in order to avoid deep cuts to cities and counties. Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City) said restoration of the fees to earlier levels, which Gov.

Ventura County supervisors Tuesday put off a decision on whether to raise annual vehicle license fees by $1 to pay for updated fingerprint scanners at police agencies in Port Hueneme, Santa Paula and Fillmore. Supervisor Kathy Long said she wants more information about how the county would use the estimated $570,000 the fee would generate each year before she approves an increase.

Orange County, already facing a $57-million budget deficit, got more bad news Friday in the form of a Chapman University report predicting reduced revenue from sales taxes and car-license fees. The forecast, produced by economist Esmael Adibi, director of Chapman's Anderson Center for Economic Research, suggests that the county's budget will be hit by the area's slow job growth in the second half of the year.

Lawmakers may not have succeeded in passing an overdue state budget last week, but Democrats did take steps to diminish Republican opposition and undercut a key GOP criticism of the plan. Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City) announced that he was dropping a proposal to raise vehicle license fees and would instead seek a massive hike in tobacco taxes. His strategy shift changes the dynamics of the budget debate by diminishing two key points of Republican opposition: Under Wesson's plan, the budget would no longer be balanced on the backs of motorists, and it would lead to smaller imbalances in the future between revenue and spending.