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Scrap the Decals
The Daily Press © May 8, 2001
It's unnecessary headache from pre-tech days.
Anyone who ever doubted how much Virginians hated the local tax they pay on their cars and trucks has only to look at the way Jim Gilmore became governor. He promised to eliminate the car tax and voters swept him into office.
Perhaps the only thing Virginians hate as much as the car tax itself is the car decals that almost every local government in the state requires they purchase and display on their windshield. Ostensibly, the decals are proof that you have paid your car tax. The absence of the decal draws the attention of local police.
But that "receipt" costs you $10 to $15.
And it's a whooping nuisance to put on the new one and scrap off the old one every year.
And those long lines. If you haven't paid your car tax by mail, you have to stand in line on the deadline to pay the tax so you can purchase the decal. Lines around the city blocks and waits of several hours on the final day are legendary. It's a huge inconvenience for procrastinators - though that's mostly brought on by themselves.
Some localities have tried to soften the blow. In James City County, for example, there's no charge for the decal. Mail in your car tax check, and the decal comes in the return mail.
But for most localities, that decal is a source of revenue they've been reluctant to give up.
But are they needed for their original purpose of enforcing tax payments? No, says Virginia Beach Commissioner of the Revenue Phil Kellam. Kellam is seeking re-election on a platform of eliminating the decal.
That won't be easy. His city collects $7.5 million a year from decal sales. No locality wants to give up that kind of revenue.
But Kellam sees it differently. The decal program is a layer of government that isn't needed. Instead of using the decal purchases as a record of what personal property exists in the city to be assessed for tax purposes, Kellam can find better information online from the Department of Motor Vehicles. Using the DMV records, Kellam says, he has found $5 million in tax revenue for the city collected on property that had not been taxed. That's almost enough to cover the $7.5 million from decals.
And here's the best part. A state law passed in 1992 allows localities and DMV to enter into agreements through which DMV will refuse to issue the annual license plate for a vehicle if the owner's locality says the personal property tax hasn't been paid. That means taxpayers have been needlessly sticking and scraping these annoying decals for almost a decade.
Not only that, but that means local government has been needlessly paying for employees, printing, postage and all the other costs of this program. The decals are not only overpriced and aggravating - they're even wasteful.
It might be hard to find anyone who liked the car tax, but nobody likes these decals. Talk to the elected officials in your local government. Make them explain why Kellam's proposal for Virginia Beach wouldn't make sense for your locality.