$204 Licnese Renewal Fees!!

I don't know where all the money from the VLF goes but CA is a lot larger than most states so it has a lot more highway maintenance for which to pay (in addition to whatever other fiscal craziness is going on). While the SF bridges may pull from the pot, I'd think it is more likely that your money is resurfacing freeways elsewhere.

The DMV has a calculator on its website that will estimate the registration fees for a new vehicle. I checked this out while on the waiting list (as well as calling AAA for an estimate of my new insurance premium) so I wouldn't have any surprises upon purchase. It looks like they may have added a VLF calculator for registered vehicles also (below the out-of-state purchase calculator).

Here's a link to the DMV's calculator page for anyone who might want to estimate their VLF: https://vrir.dmv.ca.gov/FeeCalculatorWeb/index.jsp

-- Cindy

 

In California, the specific earmarked DMV fees go to the specific agencies. The California Highway Patrol fee goes to support the California Highway Patrol. The smog abatement fee, another instance, supports the Smog Check program and the local Air Quality Management Districts. The general fees go to the DMV and makes it self-supporting rather than drawing on the state general fund. Some of the excess goes to the state general fund.

The bulk of the Vehicle License Fee, like your other property taxes, goes to the city and county where you live to pay for local services such as police, roads and schools.

In your registration renewal, there is a helpful insert which shows the breakdown of where fees come from and where they go.

 

Um. No thank you. But your generosity is duly noted.

Perhaps he would be better suited for South Dakota. They can have the Governator as well. Of course in South Dakota, poor Tim probably couldn't clear six figures a year thinking up ways to gut public education.

 

I PMed Danny and he told me that after 100 posts you get to be "Senior" which is what will happen to me after this post!

Allan de

 

I'm glad I made it that way and not due to my age.

 

Indiana has been high for years...when i paid for my prius, when it was new in 2004...it was $425...last year it was $350...and it slowly goes down as the car ages...to a minimum of $75 in year 10...and we only get 1 plate...now if you want vanity...add $45-80 depending on what you put on it...

 

California did repeal an even higher personal property tax on vehicles after recalling Gov. Grey Davis. I can't remember exactly how high they were, but I think for new cars they were about triple that rate.

We do have relatively low property taxes ... limited to 1% of the assessed valuation, plus bonded indebtedness, so for most homeowners its about 1.25% of the assessed value. The county assessor can only increase your assessed value by a small percentage each year ... 1 or 2% I think ... so we don't have people losing their homes because they can't pay their property taxes. As an example, I paid $210,000 for my house 7 years ago, but now its "worth" $750,000. I couldn't afford to buy it now, and the taxes would be horrible if they were allowed to float with the home valuations (which go up and down here).

 

Yup, the original rate for the VLF was 2% and that was high enough that middle class folks with newer cars noticed and had a tax revolt. This was pronounced because for a period state budget surpluses triggered automatic rebates of the fees, and then state budget deficits were going to trigger automatic increases back to the original amount. The current 2/3% rate seems to be sitting okay with most folks. I wasn't motivated to participate in said tax revolt because I was a lower middle class person with an old ugly car and my VLF rebate/discount was tiny. Your numbers for property taxes are correct too. The 1% cap and the inability to raise valuations was put in place by Proposition 13 in 1978 in response to exactly the problem you cited - people on relatively fixed incomes were suffering because their property taxes were increasing at a rapid pace. Freezing valuations while people are living in a home makes good sense, but the 1% cap was painful because that was a huge decrease in the tax base of many cities.

I noticed because I was in elementary school. We suddenly had three large fourth grade classes at my school instead of four medium sized ones, and the art teacher and instrumental music teachers didn't come around anymore, and P.E. was cut to twice a week and the price of school lunches doubled, and we couldn't go to the school library after school and the city library wasn't open on Saturdays anymore. It took until 1999 to get primary class sizes back down under 20, which I know from my graduate work in education is absolutely critical to making sure that kids learn how to read well, and since then they have started to climb back up.

Having gone through that experience, I really would feel lame for objecting to the $150 or so in property taxes I will be paying next year on my brand new car, or the $1400 I pay on my condo. I'm really quite well off compared to many people and see this as a completely fair contribution to the common good.

 

Sounds like California's Vehicle License Fee is simply a purposefully obscured name for what is otherwise known as an Excise Tax or Luxury Tax.

 

Yeah, when many other states are the same price for all vehicles, no matter what Model or year it is. I think that's the way it should be,m not based off of the type of car you drive. Or if it is based off the the type of car you drive, the older that car, the lower the MPG, the heavier the car, etc., the higher the registration, as the more impact it has on the roads.

 

That's NOTHING.

Out here (Silicon Valley), that same house would sell for at least $800k in a less desireable neighborhood, and the property tax rate is about 1.25%. You do the math. Our property taxes are more than most people's mortgage payments.

 

If you are annoyed by the high cost of registering a vehicle in CA, tell your elected officials to raise gas taxes and lower the registration fee. Getting revenue from gas taxes would be better for the environment (disincentivizing wasting fuel), and better for us personally.

 

I am in for user (luxury) taxes. It makes so much more sense but you know the gas companies will lobby against it. I think PZEV etc should all get discounts on registration. In Vermont we used to pay so little, not sure what it is now but I am sure that it is better than what we are used to here in California.

 

Where have you been living for this to be a surprise? How much were the fees your Tercel and Tracer Wagon when new because it's apples to watermelons to compare old and new car fees in CA.

I remember paying nearly $300 for my 1996 Civic about 3 years ago, so $204 for a new car in CA (with age/value weighted fees) is pretty good.

And people have mentioned, you might want to give a bit more closer look at the VLF and other personal property tax deductions on your tax return.

I do have to agree with you that the $2000 tax deduction doesn't come out to much at the end, esp compared with the bigger current tax credit.

 

The background on that issue is that your school would have gone through that anyway. There had been a state SupCt decision that found the unequal funding for schools unconstitutional ... it was traditionally paid by the local tax payers through their property taxes, and children of better off parents had more funding for their schools because they lived in areas with higher home valuations. Rich districts cut, and poor districts got increases as the state worked to even out the funding.

I can't remember the exact number of years, but within something like 3 years, the cities and counties were getting as much revenue as before the initiative. Part of the reason was that many new homes were given a "fee" of bonded indebtedness under "Mello-Roos" that added a monthly income to the local government for 20 years (typically). It was not uncommon to pay $250 to $500 a month in Mello-Roos fees in addition to the property tax.

 

You're right about the house, but did you notice he said he had over an acre of land? Can you imagine what that would cost in Silicon Valley?

My 2,000 square foot tract house in Oxnard is worth that much now, but I would hate to pay that for it now. I can't imagine having $10,000 a year in property taxes!