My $30 license tab dictated by Tim Eyman’s initiative cost $70 this year because the state once again forced me to buy new license plates, front and back.
I’ve never read the applicable law, but the state sends me new plates every few years and charges a pretty penny for them, even though they’re made by slave labor in Walla Walla. Forget about remembering your license plate number. It’s just a string of numbers and letters that means nothing except that the state wanted more money and sent you plates to replace the perfectly good plates you installed a few years ago.
While installing the new plates on my 21-year-old pickup, I had to use wire on the back plate because the Don Boyer plate holder had long since disintegrated. Twisting the wire at the rear of the truck provided time to think, and it dawned on me that at least with the license plates, I was getting something I could hold in my hand for my tax dollars. Admiring the reflective gloss of the new plates, I started wishing that were the case more often.
Henceforth, the government should start giving us stuff for our tax dollars. The license plates are a good example. We’re charged for the plates but the money does provide work for a prison laborer and creates demand for metal and paint suppliers. They’re worth only a fraction of the $70 license tab, but at least that fraction contributed to the economy.
Government at all levels should start a rewards program for paying taxes, much like credit card companies do for borrowing money from them. For every dollar spent in taxes, a small portion should be returned to the taxpayer in the form of a reward for being a good, taxpaying citizen.
Take the county’s proposed new property tax of $3 per month for the average home worth $250,000, which thanks to the real estate market is really worth $220,000. The tax will bring the county $36 a year. The least they could do is send the taxpayer a coupon good for a free latte at Whidbey Coffee. It would boost the local economy and give the taxpayer a bit of a buzz.
The state should track all the sales tax we pay all year and give us a reward in December, like a Christmas present. Some people spend thousands of dollars, which should be worth a new iPhone or Android under the tree. Pretty soon, taxpayers would confuse Gov. Gregoire with Santa Claus and her re-election would be assured.
On the federal level, the awards would be much higher. At present, we get nothing for our tax dollars except the warm feeling that some of them are going to an Afghan warlord’s Swiss bank account. Considering the many thousands of dollars we pay to the federal government, some personal rewards are in order. Billionaires might be inclined to actually pay their taxes if they got a new Lexus in return, and the rest of us probably wouldn’t mind sending in our 1040A check if we knew a flat-screen TV would soon be shipped our way.
Tax rewards would create jobs and help get the economy rolling again, while making taxpayers feel they’re finally getting something for their money. Anyone who cheats on their taxes could be put to work making license plates or other products for all us honest taxpayers.
