<VV> Re Sales Tax

[Bill Hubbell]

Sadly, taxes are a fact of life, it seems.  While I have my son's 1965 
Corvair out of commission in my garage (body repair and repaint) we gave him 
our 1994 Honda Civic to drive.  Since he is now 25 and living outside the 
home, we needed to transfer the title to his name in order for him to insure 
it.  That meant that even though I had already paid personal property tax on 
the car for this year, he got hit with a bill for the same amount of tax as 
soon as he got the new title.  He also got to pay the city sticker tax 
again.

Yes, it is too bad that NY has cracked down on its sales tax collections, 
but while we are there we will be driving on their roads and enjoying their 
city services, etc., so why shouldn't we be contributing something for their 
upkeep?

And I wonder how many on this list report the value of goods and services 
ordered out of state and pay the Consumers Use Tax (or whatever your state 
calls it) when they file their State Income Tax (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, 
South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wyoming, New Hampshire and Tennessee 
excepted)?

Of course, we could just limit our conventions to Alaska, Delaware, Montana, 
New Hampshire, or Oregon (States with no Sales Tax).

Bottom line, folks, taxes are a fact of life if you want public services, 
roads, etc.  Each state has their own mix of taxes to accomplish the fact - 
some hit the citizens of the state more heavily with personal property or 
income taxes, others rely on sales taxes, etc.  Be glad we don't live in 
Europe, where the gasoline tax accounts for about 66% of the cost (vs. about 
18% here in the US); where the VAT (Value Added Tax) adds 15% or more to all 
commercial activities involving the production and distribution of goods and 
the provision of services.

But, if you all really don't like taxes, and can think of a better way, then 
stop your griping and become politically active and do something about it. 
Write to your representatives, write letters to the editor of your local 
newspaper, run for office, VOTE.

Oh, wait.  That's right.  CORSA folks just like to gripe about things - they 
don't really want to get involved.  Why, just look at the recent vote totals 
for our past few elections.

2005 CORSA Board Elections: 703 ballots cast out of  5101 mailed = 13.8%

2005 Bylaws Amendment Elections: 346 ballots received out of 5115 mailed = 
6.8 % of all ballots mailed

2006 CORSA Board Elections: Something like 200 or so ballots cast in the 
East, maybe a 100  in the Central, and 62 in the west - totaling about 350 
or so out of a membership of 5,000 --- WOW, a whopping SEVEN PERCENT!!

Just pay the taxes, people.

Bill Hubbell
Eastern CORSA Director