Baumblog EST 1968 - A blog for the Baumbachs who originated in Syracuse, NY

Yeah so I found out saturday night by a cop the my license was suspended. Luckily my friend was driving, not me. I figured that my latest ticket must have screwed up when I paid them or something. I went to the DMV today to settle the score, only to find out that I didn't pay the NYS Driver Responsibility fee. Some new stupid law that says if you receive 6 or more points in 18 months, you owe them an additional fee of $100 each year, for 3 years. Thats for 6 points...each additional point is $25 more a year.

I had received a moving violation March of last year for 2 points, plus this 4 point speeding ticket, which gave me 6 points, and a nice $300 fee, in addition to the $145 for my ticket. So basically, I paid $445 for going 12 mph over the speed limit (57 in a 45).

Had I even known about the law, I would have went to court to ensure I got it reduced. Instead I plead guilty and sent a nice letter (worked for me before)...Sodus didn't care.

Just thought you all would like to know, and ye, this applies to both NYS residents and out-of-state residents. You can read up more details here.

Marc said 3 minutes later

This same exact thing happened to Laura. This must be rather new, as I'm pretty sure I've hit that 6 points before. Who knows, maybe mine is suspended as well!
GJ said about 5 hours later

It's about two years new. Oh, and Geoff...never do the nice letter thing. Always show up in court. It's worth the time.
Steve said about 7 hours later

Yup, they've been doing that in Michigan for a few years now. Oh, and in Michigan, if you don't have an up to date insurance stub in your car, automatic $300 fine, plus you have to pay the driver responsibility fee, no matter how many points you have. That's just if you don't have the stub, doesn't matter if you can later prove that you were properly insured. Just another scam by the state governments to get more money out of us (the insurance part anyway).

Hey, you probably haven't heard, but Michigan is now trying to compete with New York for stupid high taxes! They couldn't figure out a way to trim the budget, so they just dediced to hike our income tax from 3.9% to 4.35%. Oh, and now they are going to tax some service industries, but not all. Only the ones that don't have lobbyists feeding the legislators and sending them on paid vacations. Sure hope Jennifer Granholm isn't planning to seek re-election, and she just gauraunteed a loosing effort. Maybe they need to realize that the population of Michigan has shrank considerably over the past 10 years, and they need to significantly trim their budgets! No, that would be too hard. Just raise taxes, I mean, the people are too dumb to notice, right?

What I'm most disappointed in, is that 3 Senate Republicans voted for this change, which was enough to pass the bill with 20 votes for, 19 against. In the house, is passed 57 to 52, with just two Republicans voting for it. Fortunately, the one Democrat in the house that I voted for voted against party lines, and against the tax increase. He'll get a nice thank you note for his efforts from me.
Marc said about 8 hours later

Two years sounds about right, I haven't had a major ticket since then. But now that I just said that, I expect one soon.
Steve said about 9 hours later

Ah, I just checked up on the MI law, and it seems a year after they enacted the driver responsibility law, they amended it so that you could go to court and prove you had insurance WHEN you got the ticket in case you didn't have the stub in your car with you.

"Drivers will not be assessed the Driver Responsibility Fee if they provide proof of insurance that was valid on the date the citation was issued to the court prior to the court appearance date given on the ticket. Drivers who fail to provide proof of insurance to the court within the required time will be responsible for paying a Driver Responsibility Fee of $500 or $200 for two consecutive years. The second year fee may not be paid in advance. "

Don't ask me how they determine who pays $500, and who pays 2x$200. I think it was initially $500, and then a year later they dropped it to 2x$200.

"Category 1 offenses, such as speeding, improper turns, and following too closely, are assessed a fee based on the number of points on the driving record, with a required minimum of seven points. The fees assessed begin at $100 and increase by $50 for each additional point above seven points.

Drivers assessed a fee for seven or more points under Category 1 will be assessed only once per year. Category 1 fees will not be assessed in any year in which the number of points on a driving record falls below seven."

"Certain offenses are classified as "qualifying offenses" and carry their own driver responsibility fee independent from the number of points on the driving record. Drivers convicted of qualifying offenses will be assessed a driver responsibility fee of $150, $200, $500 or $1,000 for two consecutive years. The amount is determined by the relative seriousness of the offense. For example:

Drunk Driving (Operating While Intoxicated) = $1,000
Reckless Driving = $500
No Proof of Insurance = $200
Drove While License Expired = $150

Driver responsibility fees are assessed for two consecutive years for Category 2 convictions. The second year's fees will be assessed on the anniversary date of the first year's fees."

Oh yes, these are all on top of the normal fines...gotta love Michigan tax law.

GJ said about 15 hours later

Sorry, Steve...but at least in New York, Republicans were the ones behind all these stupid fees. Actually, one Republican in particular, George Pataki, who knew he had to raise money somehow but was allergic to raising taxes. So...instead, we get fee-ed to death.

Michigan's generally a blue state...did the Dems come up with these fees out your way?

Either way, it is a scam.
GJ said about 15 hours later

Oh, and regarding your post about taxes...tell me about it. It sounds like Schenectady all over again. :)
Steve said 1 day later

Yup, it was the Democrats. That's one thing I hate about living in a democrat controlled state. Stupid unions don't help.