The FEES Are Coming, The FEES Are Coming!

Funny thing about any state or federal government is they want you to pay more for many things but they don’t want you to be able to deduct it, or have any benefit from it. You are just the source of monies to pay for whatever fee they have decided to tack on to any item. I have just a few examples of both state and federal fees that I am expected to pay for but from which I will receive nothing at all. Some fees are in your face and obvious, many are buried in hundreds of pages.

For example, I submitted my renewal papers for my nursing license, and noted the fee increase. They want $10 increase for an “educational fund”. Funny thing is this fund and agency has never educated me in any way shape or form. I suppose you could call it “an education” to read the renewal form and figure out all their legalese and submit your fee which at this time is tax deductible. The fee of $140 goes up to $205 if you are one day late. Hardly seems fair, such a huge penalty for one day…and makes me wonder which “California fund” this goes into and where it is really spent. If there are, for example, 70,000 RN’s times $10 education fee, it is a whole lot of moolah. I am curious where the late payment penalties go and what fund they put them into. If 20,000 RN’s pay one day late, $65 times it is 1.3 million dollars. If you add that to the regular fees without penalties, you get a nice $ 2 million approximately in the pot for ‘education’.  Are you starting to see how the sneaky fees add up?

I pay my property taxes. If I want fire protection where I live I must pay a fee of $120. This money goes into a “general fund”, where I have a nagging feeling my fire protection fee will be spent somewhere else. This cannot be deducted as a tax because it is a fee.

Fees and more fees!  Of course, it costs taxpayer dollars to create all of these “fees”—and all in the name of not raising taxes.  It might be okay if they were responsible and used the money correctly, but here in California there’s a major problem with greed and extremism (and misappropriation).

Ironically, two years ago they sent me my renewal form in December, but they had raised the fee beginning January, and in their magnificent incompetence they sent me the old form along with the old fee.  I called the California Board of Nursing wondering where my license was, and was told I paid $10 short.  I explained that I had paid the fee on the form they sent me and that at no time did I psychically predict their fee increase… Unfortunately this is typical for bureaucrats, trying to tell people they should have known things were changing– and even if they mess up it is still your fault.

These are just two examples of fee tactics, basically just another way to collect taxes without actually calling them taxes—and getting around that pesky matter of “taxation without representation”.  Today we are fined/taxed everywhere we go in everything we do. One form of the government–whether state or Federal– has its hand out, ready to take your taxes/fees out of your pocket, or mouth.  In doing this, they are able to tax/fine you multiple times for an item you own. Your car registration is a good example of that. When you purchase your car, you pay taxes. Then to renew your right to drive you must pay every two years. This is outrageous to me, that California gets hundreds of dollars from every driver every two years.  Where does all that money go? Certainly not to our roads!  The California Department of Motor Vehicles is closed every Friday now because they can’t afford to pay their staff.  To heck with the taxpayers–their attitude is:  Re-schedule!

If you go camping in the Golden State you pay $8.00 just to make a reservation. I remember when I only paid $8 a night to camp.

From the California Parks website:  “In addition to the campsite fee, an additional $8.00 for processing a reservation will be included in the price of a campsite. This cost is incurred by Reserve America, a private corporation that contracts with California State Parks to operate the reservation system.”

The thing about the fees is they are tacked on to anything they want. This makes it harder to track them and if they are used properly.  The more obscure your fee is the more likely it is for California to misappropriate those funds.  When I lived in Massachusetts, they had what they called an “excise tax”. This was basically a “luxury tax” that you paid on items such as your car, for the life of a car. Again, you are taxed on something you have already paid taxes for, over and over again.

If you are lucky enough and make over $1 million per year   you will pay California’s highest marginal rate 13.30 percent. When I checked out Florida’s tax rate, Florida is one of only seven states that does not tax individual wage income. It does, however, assess a state corporate income tax. The state’s intangible personal property tax was eliminated in 2007. It does not take a huge imagination to see how much money you would save by moving.

California does not seem to care about its resident’s ability to afford anything. We are taxed 50 cents per gallon for our gasoline. All of these fees add up to a burden for Californians and, of course, a huge government is required to oversee the collection of these monies.

The difference in fees taxes and cost of living from where I live now and where I lived in the Bay Area can be figured here:
http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savings/moving-cost-of-living-calculator.aspx

Just by moving, I maintained my same living standard and saved 37.48 % in the past year. If I type in Fort Worth I could save 47.09% and maintain my same standard of living.

I have only listed a few California State and government fees, which I will be expected to pay—but what if I don’t?  Are we all to be tossed in prison if we refuse to pay these government-rigged taxes/fees? It costs the government an average of $60K per year to imprison someone—perhaps a new “Debtor’s Prison” system will be reintroduced to Americans in the upcoming future…

But wait, there’s more…There are lots of sneaky “fees” about to come to us via the Obamacare, especially for those on fixed incomes.  I highly encourage all of you to determine upcoming changes to your states taxes and fees related to your own cost of living.

As for the fees I pay here in California, I will complain to my legislators. I want to let them know they have reached a tipping point where they are going to lose even more hardworking Californians with their burdensome fees/fines/taxes.  When the money goes, there go the jobs; there goes the neighborhood, along with the uptick on the poverty level.  We need to prevent a mass exodus of jobs and businesses by making California—and America–a more hospitable climate.