I got a call from Ontario the other day. Woman was charged with 96 mph in a 65 mph zone. I gave her the bad news. Maximum fine is $600. $55 mandatory surcharge. On top of that the DMV "Drivers Responsibility Assessment" is $450, for getting 8 points within 18 months. Total of about $1100.
Her response: "New York is brutal."
A while back I looked at NJ fines, and I think they top out at about $250. The insurance rates there are the big deal. So I'm wondering if NY is the worst. Perhaps my readers can help out with this one? I still can't believe I have readers. :-)
The DMV assessment is new as of 11/18/2004. Apparently the State was trying to raise revenue, and its initial plan was to take the ticket revenue away from the towns. That didn't go over well, so they came up with this idea.
So really it's just another set of taxes. A completely unfair, arbitrary and brutal set of taxes. It does make it easier for me to sell my services, but it still ain't right.
5 comments:
Well, folks - in our system of government, THEY are supposed to answer to US. When someone in government pulls this type of nonsense, they are accountable.
Unfortunately, the average American citizen seems to have forgotten this; it is simply too cumbersome to hold our hired servants accountable for their actions.
So we complain about the injustice of it all. And we say "Something should be done about this!". And we tell our friends about how badly we have been abused by those who have sworn an oath to protect our rights, our 'life, liberty and pursuit of happiness'. And, in some cases, we post on internet blogs about the problem.
And nothing is changed. The same crooks who have perpetrated this (and so many other) injustice upon the general population are re-elected over and over again; politicians, judges, DAs - they are ALL involved in these scams. We allow the media to tell us how to think, what is right and wrong, who to vote for (and who to pretend isn't even running for office), and why it is OK for our civil rights to be violated in the name of 'the greater social good'. By the way, that's Socialism, and not too many years ago we were told that the Soviets were horrible people because they had a Socialist system...
In any event, I'm not holding my breath waiting for crooked elected officials to suddenly 'see the light' and stop stealing from their employers. It's not going to happen. If The People want a change, they will have to force that change.
Just a thought... read up on MI drivers resp. fee.
I work in the courts here and that is all we do on Monday's, DWLS, $1000 a pop.
Do you know where the money in NY goes towards?
All, or nearly all, of the money goes to the state government. I don't know if it's allocated to something in particular.
I can update the post by mentioning that Virginia has a dramatically higher set of assessments (starting at $1000). Also, NY increased surcharges on tickets, by about $30 for regular traffic and in the hundreds for DWI cases.
I just got off the phone with the director of NJ MVC and he told me "off the record" that states are hurting for money and this is a "cash cow" for us.
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