If you have questioned how it is that Sen. Mitch McConnell is clearly a statist thug, it could very well be that he is just from Kentucky. Kentucky legislators have an odd way of doing things, just a bit askew (to be charitable). Example: vehicle taxes and registration. When we got back from our time in Eastport, ME, we had a pile of mail waiting for us. One piece was a little postcard-sized note that we still owed $30 on the Chevy Blazer we traded-in to buy the pickup we use to haul the trailer now. Rather than issue a vehicle license tag for 12 months starting in the month the vehicle is purchased (like other states do), Kentucky starts in on Jan. 1 of the calendar year you bought it in (or own it) and sends you the bill for the entire year in the month you were born in. If you should trade the vehicle in before your birth-month, you still owe the taxes. In other words, you start out the year owing taxes to the state regardless of any actions on your part. Pretty slick, huh? But like other states, it’s not what you paid for the vehicle that determines the Use Tax, it is what the state determines is the value. We got a $1,000 trade-in value from the dealer for the Blazer. Kentucky says $2,400 is the “real” value, so the tax is based on that. The state gets it’s cut, so does the county. But then it gets weird. Five other entities get a cut of the tax money pie; the local school district, the local library district, the local health department, the county extension service (continuing farmer education), and the local Fire Department. And these slices are in addition to the pieces of the real estate property taxes we pay, renters included. Rather than having the intestinal fortitude (read balls) to be honest about taxing people for certain ends, Kentucky legislators are practiced in deception and deal-making. McConnell has developed it into a fine art during his time in Washington, DC. The list is too long to include here. Picture a group old men, dressed in white linen summer suits, with straw hats and black string ties (Kentucky Colonels), slapping each other on the backs, saying, “There! We all got what we wanted and the taxpayers won’t really notice. Do you want another Mint Julip? How about a cigar? Let’s go watch the hired-help work the south forty.” It’s time to dump the entire Kentucky Legislature and McConnell.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 10:14:45 +0000