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You can still see Richard Seymour in a Patriots uniform
By adamg on Wed, 09/09/2009 - 7:24pm
If you hurry down to your nearest RMV office:
As Paul Keleher discovered.
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Comments
General Rant
My co-worker and I both signed up to get Celtics license plates. We were told that they would be manufactured once 1500 applications were received. We have both paid for the plates via check.
This was close to three years ago.
I find it hard to believe that there haven't yet been 1500 applications for those plates. I mean, the team won a championship in the interim. There must be at least 1500 frontrunners and bandwagon jumpers in this state. Trying to get info from the registry, however, is near-impossible, and the Celtics front office is no better. We have no idea if we're still the only applicants or if they might have 25,000 by this time and they're just stalling the production only to piss us off.
(Self-aggrandizing disclaimer: My buddy and I put in our applications when they were in the basement, and starting guys like Mark Blount. We deserve plates # 1 and 2.)
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Ah yes, the speciality plate - Massachusetts' way of
extorting charitable contributions from its citizens. Almost as bad as the annual RMV waste of taxpayer time and money known as the "low numbered licence plate lottery."
Seriously, I appreciate the hard work that most charitable orginizations do on behalf of their goals. I just don't agree that the state should be an agent to solicit donations on their behalf.
And for those who will inevitably object to my use of the word "extorting", consider this: If you don't agree to pay the charitable donation added to your registration fee, you can't get the special plate in the first place. Further, to renew the registration (and keep the special plate), you have to make an additional charitable contribution.
Simple - with extortion, you don't have much of a choice
With the specialty plates, you do have a choice.
Either:
A. Take the license plate and pay up to the charity
Or
B. Take a normal plate and pay normal charges
As long as the charity gets all the extra charges levied, it sounds like a fair deal to me. If the state takes a cut, then I would be pissed. Otherwise, I don't understand your beef. Sounds like you want a special plate, but don't want to pay for it. Then again, maybe I'm missing something.
Actually, I do have unique licence plates on my car.
However, they are NOT any of the 13 different RMV 'speciality' plates. Rather, they are regular format plates that have a ham radio callsign instead of the ususal random letter/number combination.
The simple fact regarding specality plates is that you ARE REQUIRED to pay a charitable contribution in order to obtain (and keep) the special plate.
The RMV does NOT give you the option of obtaining a special plate without making the charitable contribution. Rather, they are forcing you to contribute to a charity as a condition of obtaining a special plate. That to me fits one of the generally accepted definitions of extortion.
And I stand by my original point that the state should not be an agent to solicit contributions from ANY charitable organization, be it through special licence plates or on your tax forms.
how is it extortion if you don't have to get the plates?
you have the option of getting the same ol' boring "sprit of america" plates with no additional fee. simply put, you *have* a choice.
if you want to show your support of the the red sox, or the whales, or whatever, i have no problem with you paying extra for that - no matter who the money actually goes to.
Let me repeat once again.
You may have the choice to not get the special plates. However, you DO NOT HAVE THE CHOICE to get the special plates WITHOUT paying extra money to "show your support" for the applicable charity the plates are connected with.
Hypothetical situation time - Say you have a Bruins fan that wants to get the special Bruins plates, but they don't support the Youth Hockey organization because they may have issues with how the programs are run. By forcing the person to make a donation to a private group they have reservations about supporting AS A CONDITION of obtaining RMV-issued licence plates they want, the RMV is in fact extorting the charitable donation from that person.
(for the record - I support the goals of the Youth Hockey organization, but am not really a Bruins fan)
WTF
Extortion?
You know what? I wanted an Obama 2008 t-shirt, but the freakin extorters required that I pay $20 to the campaign fund to get my shirt. That's extortion. They should have just given me a free t-shirt, instead of requiring me to pay.
And don't even get me started about how you have to pay for AIDS ribbons. THAT'S EXTORTION. It's my god-given right to have an AIDS ribbon on my bag, and I'll be damned if I have to give money to AIDS charities to get one. EXTORTION I TELL YOU.
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http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Again, you have a choice
That's correct. Like I said, you want the plates for nothing. I don't see it as extortion at all.
You may have a point with the state acting as an agent for the charities, but usually when it comes to charities, agents like this get a lot of leeway, as long as they don't get a cut of the action, whether it be a percentage, transaction fees, etc. That would be sleazy.
If you're still confused about my point of view, please
re-read the "hypothetical" situation I posed in a previous post.
In response to eeka's post, I point out that official licence plates are different than ribbons or T shirts. If a person likes pink ribbon, they only need to go to a craft store to get all the ribbon they want, and do not have to make a contribution to a charity to get it. Likewise, I suspect that if a person really wanted an Obama 2008 T shirt, but did not want to contribute to the campaign, they could have found several people selling them over the Internet who were not connected to the campaign organization at all.
The difference with the licence plates is that the RMV is the only place for one to get the speciality plate. In other words, they have a monopoly on the commodity. There are no other legal sources of supply.
Upon reflection, I now agree that 'extortion' may be too harsh a word to describe what the RMV is doing here. However, I still feel that requiring a charitable contribution as a condition of acquiring a plate is unreasonable.
In fact, the problem I posed in the 'hypothetical' situation could be easily avoided if the RMV changed their tone from "You MUST agree to make a charitable contribution in order to acquire and renew these plates' to "You've chosen to get these speciality plates. Would you like to make a charitable contribution to XYZ as well?"
As for merinmurph's comment that a person would then get the plates for free, you forgot about the registration fees and other RMV charges.
And once again for the record: a) I respect the hard work most responsible charities do on behalf of their causes and b) I have no interest whatsoever in acquiring any of the 13+ speciality design plates the RMV currently offers.
Not a monopoly
License plates are a government-regulated item signaling that someone has correctly followed regulations regarding how to register and maintain a car. Using a car on the road is a privilege, not a right.
You also can't just go buy vaccination certificates for your kid, or diplomas, or birth certificates, or prescriptions or court orders. This isn't because these things are a monopoly.
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http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
You can get vaccinations from any number of doctors, you
can get a college degree from any number of schools, but you can only register your car with the ONE motor vehicle department in your state.
Yes, the RMV is a government service, but it still meets the definition of a monopoly.
Uhhhh...
We all have unique license plates. That's kind of the whole point of them.
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http://1smootshort.blogspot.com