Posted on 03/03/2005 12:49:47 PM PST by tomball
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Sam Byers heard a commotion outside his house, but by the time he got to the window his Ford Explorer was gone. City marshals, armed with a new tool that photographs auto license plates and instantly matches them against a tax scofflaw database, had towed Byers' car right out of his driveway.
"That's like kidnapping your car," Byers, a 58-year-old truck driver said as he stood, leaning on the crutches he got after a foot operation. Byers was in a long line of people outside the New Haven tax collector's office who were waiting to make delinquent payments so they could get their vehicles back.
Cash-strapped New Haven is a pioneer in using the so-called BootFinder system. The objective: snare people who haven't paid car taxes. (Connecticut is among a handful of states where local governments levy annual fees, typically a few hundred dollars per vehicle, based on the value of residents' automobiles.)
New Haven officials are overjoyed at the results. They've towed about 1,800 cars and recovered more than $1 million in delinquent taxes since the program began in September, including from people whose cars they removed from a Wal-Mart parking lot.
But privacy advocates are concerned.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.lp.findlaw.com ...
Ford Explorer, is there "nothing" to corrupt for these SUV's?
I bet they have to pay for the tow, too.
Can they legally size personal property and hold it for ransome without an order permitting it from the court?
SUVS, tax cheats Wal Mart: the evil trifecta
EVILDOERS
P.S. The solution to the problem is to park you car in a locked garage or remove the plates while it is not in motion.
This will encourage local government to tie all your taxes, fees and penalties to your license plate. My advice? Swap license plates with a bus.
Too bad they don't have any property rights.
What a commentary on the Gov't - At all levels mind you.
Why not just tell everyone that the age of private property is over and the governments can steal your possessions on a whim.
You don't pay your property taxes & they take your home....even if the home is fully paid for...so we have no property rights. Sad, but true. I use this example all the time with friends who ask why I am not a homeowner like them....
And government thinks nothing of entering private property to seize private property without notice or warrant.
" typically a few hundred dollars per vehicle, based on the value of residents' automobiles."
A 'few hundred dollars per vehicle'?
1,000,000 /1800 = 555 dollars.
Someone is paying an awful lot if this isn't divided equally, which the article states, it isn't.
Actually, they have been doing this for ages. Ever had a tax lien filed against you, without notice AND without owing anything? California has this property taking tactic down to a science.
Well, the IRS can basically whatever they want. Are state tax collectors less powerful?
Personal property tax on your automobile. Basically, it's just like the property tax on your house, you get charged a certain percentage of the assessed value (according to the gummint, who typically use a Kelly Blue Book or similar) of your car, every year. Typically it's (allegedly) used for local expenses such as schools.
Here in Virginia, you have to pay the tax *and* pay extra to purchase a window decal from your county or city. Without that window sticker on your windshield, you're liable to being pulled over and ticketed, every day. In South Carolina, there were no decals, but you couldn't renew your license plates without evidence that you paid your car tax. No tax receipt, no registration.
}:-)4
Excuse me, but what "private property"? There's no longer any such thing in this country. All property is owned by the US, State and/or local governments. We just rent it from them in the form of taxes.
Don't believe me? Just stop paying you taxes and see how long you get to keep your "private property."
You are right ! No one has true title to any property in the continental U.S.A.. It (all property) was offered by our govt up to the federal reserve bank as collateral for all the loans our government would be getting from the federal reserve bank. Everyone has only color of title. True title is only held to land/property only if you get the land patents which were quietly taken, back in the early 1900's from the county land offices and placed in the state capital buildings for safe keeping. This is why the govt agents can come take your property at will if you do not pay your taxes. You do not really own it. Now if the people of the U.S.A organized and refused to pay anymore taxes, the fed would/could simply pay (loan money to) a foreign military power to invade and capture their collateral.Remember, the fed rsrv. bank is a private lending institution not remotely connected to the govt.. They are/have financed wars in the past.............pitting one nation against another in order to collect/protect their assets. Dirty and nasty isn't it ???
>>What the h3!! is a "car tax"?<<
You obviously don't live in California.
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