Arizona Registration

davidc

New member
Just a heads up.
Arizona vehicle registrations are already some of the highest in the country, now this. I may have to change my residency to South Dakota. I imagine this includes RV`s but do not know for sure.


Public Safety Fee going into effect
Fee to be collected during vehicle-registration process




Beginning Dec. 1, Arizona motorists expecting vehicle registration renewals will see a new Public Safety Fee. The fee was established by state law to support public safety and Highway Patrol operations. The fee goes into effect for registrations due in January which can be paid as early as Dec. 1, and immediately for newly registered vehicles.

The fee will be collected during the vehicle-registration process administered by the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division. Arizona statute established the method for collecting the fee and sets the process for determining the amount based on a formula designed to support Highway Patrol operations.

Highway Patrol operations — among the most visible functions of the Arizona Department of Public Safety — include response to collisions on Arizona highways, enforcing state laws designed to keep the motoring public safe, arresting impaired drivers, assisting motorists in distress, air-rescue operations and patrolling more than 6,800 miles of highways.

Most motorists will pay $32 per vehicle, per year. Street-legal golf carts and primarily off-highway vehicles will pay $5. Those who register a vehicle annually or pay for a two- or five-year registration will pay the entire amount up front for each registered year.

The funds raised through the Public Safety Fee will not only provide necessary dollars for public safety, but will advance maintenance and construction of Arizona’s highway infrastructure, including the state’s Key Commerce Corridors that support economic development around the state.

Over the past decade, much of the Highway Patrol’s budget was considered part of the Arizona Highway User Revenue Fund, the gas-tax account that supports Arizona roadways, including law-enforcement support. The new $32 Public Safety Fee will allow gas-tax money to support roadway maintenance and construction, while providing a different source of funding for Highway Patrol operations.

For more information: www.azdot.gov/mvd.

For details on the enabling legislation, visit: https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/53leg/2R/laws/0265.pdf.


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Sounds like another BS tax. The state already taxes gas to pay for infrastructure why not just raise the gas tax 1 cent? I hate any new tax to pay for something where there is already a tax in place. Doesn’t make sense.
 
In GA you pay everything up front. When you purchase a vehicle you pay an ad valorem tax of 7% of the vehicles price. Where they really screw you is on used cars. They have their own “black book” of vehicle values, so it doesn’t matter if you get a great deal or not. You never recoup that tax. If you keep the car for a year and buy a different car you pay the tax again and again and again every time you buy a different vehicle. It discourages people from trading cars every few years. After you pay the ad valorem tax it’s just a $5 fee each year for registration.

100% disabled Veterans get a break. We get one vehicle tax free. I’ve got four cars, one I didn’t have to pay taxes on. I keep waiting for them to repeal this “gift”.
 
Don`t some states have the license plate fees tied to the value of the vehicle?

Yes Az. is one of them. The thing I do not care for is the state just slapping this one on residents, no vote no say in the matter. When I was working I would work a little extra to pay for things like this. Being retired on a fixed income I do not think Social Security is going to help with this. You always see the stories how the elderly have to make decisions between medicine and food but this is just $32.00 I will not have for something else. Seems we had quite a ruccus with England doing things like this.

Dave
 
I`m guessing you have someone in South Dakota whose address you can use? I mean you`re not going to up and move over $32?

There are mail forwarding places in South Dakota, Texas and Florida a lot of snowbirds, retired people use. They issue you a street address, change your drivers license, vehicle registrations and you are now a resident of that state. Now that we are retired and on a fixed income we watch our spending quite closely as working extra is not an option and up charges like this just take a little more.

Dave
 
I hear your pain DavidC. As a AZ resident too, who is also legally retired, I have a different thought though. I have friends who live in New England and the property taxes they pay are off the charts. As an overall %, we in AZ pay less taxes than many others. I still do part time work, so this one won`t bite me too bad. I have a friend in CT who pays about 20k a year in property taxes. Crap, I`d move if I had that tax.
 
I hear your pain DavidC. As a AZ resident too, who is also legally retired, I have a different thought though. I have friends who live in New England and the property taxes they pay are off the charts. As an overall %, we in AZ pay less taxes than many others. I still do part time work, so this one won`t bite me too bad. I have a friend in CT who pays about 20k a year in property taxes. Crap, I`d move if I had that tax.

Yeah, I know a guy in Maine that paid $1200 for his first year of registration. While in Pa. my Mom and Dad were paying $3500 for property taxes and that was before 1972 so I can only imagine what it is now. When I moved here in 1977 property tax was $350ish. If people do not start complaining these politicians will just keep tacking this kind of stuff on. They may even if the complaining happens but that is what voting is all about if you can find an honest candidate. Anyway I did my part with the complaining on this new fee. So far I have not heard back from my supposed Representatives (imagine that). When we retired we kept our registrations here as I was going to change everything to another location for financial survival, this back handed move has me thinking about it again.

Dave
 
There are mail forwarding places in South Dakota, Texas and Florida a lot of snowbirds, retired people use. They issue you a street address, change your drivers license, vehicle registrations and you are now a resident of that state. Now that we are retired and on a fixed income we watch our spending quite closely as working extra is not an option and up charges like this just take a little more.

Dave

They are cracking down here on people using the “S. Dakota option” to register their cars. Hitting them with back taxes and fines. I’m not sure how insurance companies are dealing with the vehicle registered in one state but residing in one state thing. If you have the money to buy an exotic you should also have the money to pay taxes on it. It shouldn’t be another exemption for the rich.
 
They are cracking down here on people using the “S. Dakota option” to register their cars. Hitting them with back taxes and fines. I’m not sure how insurance companies are dealing with the vehicle registered in one state but residing in one state thing. If you have the money to buy an exotic you should also have the money to pay taxes on it. It shouldn’t be another exemption for the rich.

Every state has it`s own laws. However,I can see an insurance company refusing to pay a claim if a person falsified the vehicle`s registration information.
I wouldn`t be surprised if the policies define registration requirements.

Property damage, probably not that big of a deal. Millions of dollars in personal liability damages are another story.

Insurance companies throw nickels around like manhole covers. And they have DEEP pockets with armies of lawyers on staff.
 
South Dakota started doing that for more federal tax dollars based on population. It was intended to attract those living the nomadic lifestyle. Be it the rv, van life, etc. Those people needed a easy why when not having any permanent residence. Like so many things it gets abused till it ruins it for those it was intended to help.
 
In AZ there are monthly Cars & Coffee meets where any big dollar car is sporting a Montana plate. You can google up Montana license plate LLC and get info on how a lawyer there will fix you up with a LLC and register your car real cheap. But.... you risk a problem with your insurance company voiding your policy when they find out your doing this when you get in an accident.
Montana plate Scam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebDF-C7GJec

AZ charges $2.80 license tax on every $100 of car value (a cars MSRP base price is reduced 15% per year) Figuring $2,800 per $100,000 A $2,500,000 Pangani (yes there is one here) would cost you $70,000 first year.
 
AZ charges $2.80 license tax on every $100 of car value (a cars MSRP base price is reduced 15% per year) Figuring $2,800 per $100,000 A $2,500,000 Pangani (yes there is one here) would cost you $70,000 first year.

So do you figure the state legislators just figured that if you could afford a $2.5 million car you could afford the $70,000? Or do you figure they just never envisioned someone having a $2.5 million car so they neglected to put a cap on the tax?
 
A commentator on the local news brought up an interesting comment. He said the new fee is tied to the yearly budget. Now we know what happens every year to budgets. So this year it is $32, next year maybe $38, next $45and so on. I do not know of any cap on this fee.

Dave
 
So do you figure the state legislators just figured that if you could afford a $2.5 million car you could afford the $70,000? Or do you figure they just never envisioned someone having a $2.5 million car so they neglected to put a cap on the tax?

A friend sums it up this way..... If you cannot afford the tax to drive it.... you can`t afford to own it.
 
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