RMV Tax?

If someone can explain the sense in this, I’m all ears:

Gov. Deval Patrick is quietly whacking beleaguered Bay State motorists with a $5 fee to use Registry of Motor Vehicle branches to renew their licenses and registrations, outraging critics who say the “back-door tax” hits poor and elderly drivers the hardest.

The fee, which goes into effect today, comes on the heels of a $10 license renewal increase last year.

“In this economic climate we shouldn’t be nickel-and-diming people for mandated services,” said state Sen. Steve Baddour (D-Methuen), who co-chairs the Legislative Transportation Committee, and is planning to look into repealing the fee.

Republicans said residents ought to be able to walk in and use their RMV branches without penalty.

“This is a back-door tax that hits the poor and elderly the hardest,” said Tarah Donoghue, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Republican Party. “They can’t afford or don’t have Internet access and computers. The Patrick-Murray administration is burdening those people who can afford it the least.”

Customers will incur the new $5 fee if they speak with an RMV representative on the phone or go in to one of the 30 branches for the following services:

• Renewing your driver’s license (except for the 10-year renewal required in person);
• Getting a duplicate license or Massachusetts ID;
• Renewing your registration; or
• Requesting an attested driving record.

The fee won’t be charged for transactions completed online, by mail, or over the RMV’s automated phone system.

I just don’t get this. This is essentially a tax for interacting with state employees in lieu of utilizing automated or online services. I find this particularly odd because it’s usually the other way around, and dubbed a “convenience fee.” I’ve gotten my fair share of parking tickets around the Boston area, and wouldn’t you know it, if I wanted to pay my fine online, I was charged a fee; if I paid in person or by mail, no fee.

So which is it? Are we to be levied with fees for utilizing online services, or in-person services? Either way, it’s absurd. More transactions online mean less people to pay at the RMV, so it ends up in a cost savings and it saves people time. It’s a win-win. But charging people to waste their time in line, dealing with people who really couldn’t care less about helping you, for that you are charging a fee?

Screw that. My license expires next year, and since I renewed online 5 years ago, I have no choice but to go stand in line at the RMV, and I’ll be damned if you try to charge me an extra fee to do that.

Rasmussen Poll Results

Just in…

Rasmussen Reports has conducted an Election Night survey of 1,000 voters in the Massachusetts special election for U.S. Senate. Data will be released on this page throughout the evening.

Polls closed in Massachusetts at 8:00 p.m. Eastern in the race between Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown.

Preliminary results include:

* Among those who decided how they would vote in the past few days, Coakley has a slight edge, 47% to 41%.
* Coakley also has a big advantage among those who made up their mind more than a month ago.
* Seventy-six percent (76%) of voters for Brown said they were voting for him rather than against Coakley.
* Sixty-six percent (66%) of Coakley voters said they were voting for her rather than against Brown.
* 22% of Democrats voted for Brown. That is generally consistent with pre-election polling.

Is Voter Fraud A Real Threat Tomorrow?

Voter fraud is most often a worry during presidential elections, but with tomorrow’s vote in the Special Election, you can’t ignore the possibility.

Take MSNBC’s Ed Schultz comments, telling voters to vote ten times on Tuesday. Add to that the number of dead registered voters and voters have since moved out of the Commonwealth, we could be gearing up for a nasty battle.

As reported by CNS News, “In Massachusetts, 116,483 registered voters are dead, 3.38 percent of the state’s total of registered voters. Another 538,567, or 15.6 percent, had moved to an area outside of where they are registered to vote.”

Americans for Limited Government Foundation’s project leader, Dan Tripp, is on the ground in Massachusetts monitoring the special election, and said that “for fraudsters, it’s a numbers game. It only takes a few hundred people voting at multiple locations to change the outcome of any statewide election, including Massachusetts’ special senatorial election.”

Generally, in Massachusetts, voters need to provide a name and address associated with the voting list at the polling location in order to vote. There is no voter ID requirement unless a voter registered after 2003 by mail and is a first-time voter.

Keep an eye for suspicious activity, and report it by calling 1-800-462-VOTE (8683).

John Kerry To Join Obama Administration?

…okay, there are no reports saying he’s planning to, but now that the IRS says he owes over $800,000 in back taxes, that probably puts him on the short list for some administration position.

The Internal Revenue Service has filed a $819,848 tax lien against Sen. John F. Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, but Kerry on Wednesday blamed IRS clerical error for the claim and said his campaign owes no tax penalties.

The Massachusetts Democrat said the IRS mishandled payroll tax forms that he said were correctly filed by his campaign in 2005.

Meeting The Man

Barbara Anderson on a nice little conversation she had with Gov. Patrick.

…Gov. Deval Patrick came to Marblehead for one of his community meetings. I was there to take notes for this column so I didn’t raise my hand to ask a question. But suddenly I found myself answering one from the governor when he asked for a show of hands on who supports, and who doesn’t, a graduated income tax.

I was a definite “doesn’t,” so to my surprise he walked over to my chair and asked, “Why?”

It’s funny how disoriented you can be when someone who is there to answer questions suddenly asks one. I had never met Gov. Patrick, but I’m sure I made an impression by first looking behind me and saying, “Who, me?” and when he nodded, asking “Why what?”

When I finally got around to it, I explained that the grad tax (which would require voter approval for a constitutional amendment) always loses because voters understand how varied rates would allow the Legislature to pick us off one bracket at a time, ratcheting up every two years; and Massachusetts taxes are already the fourth highest in the nation per capita.

“No, they’re not,” the governor argued.

“Yes, they are,” I said. This first meeting was going well.

UPDATE: From Wayne Woodlief, the Herald and the Sun-Chronicle.

SECOND UPDATE: More from the Globe.

THIRD UPDATE: More from the Globe, Herald and WBZ.