Fairpoint Sues New Hampshire Towns Over Pole Tax > If I Had a Nickel...

Yep, Virginia did that to me with my 6-yr old truck that wasn't purchased or even registered in the state. I just happened to live there for a few years.

Did you have to buy a city parking sticker or something? If not and you didn't license it in the state (assuming that's what you meant by register), how did they know? Do they have an enforcer trolling the neighborhood logging out-of-state plates and after they see the same plate for so long, they send a bill?

My favorite is Missouri's personal property tax. I just bought a new vehicle in June and the net price I paid to the dealer was $34K. I had to pay ~$2,800 (~8%) in sales taxes AND I have to declare the vehicle as personal property. The personal property taxes will cost me ~$500/$600 a year. I have to pay to buy it and I have to pay every year I own it.

And the cost of this enforcement is outweighed by the tax revenue it generates? If camera's are doing the work in an Orwellian fashion, I can see it more than paying for itself. However, if some Joe's specific job is to catalog and determine violations, I'd have to see the numbers to understand how that's a good use of tax dollars. It seems more efficient to drop the personal property tax and get the revenue somewhere else that's easily deterministic and doesn't require enforcement trolls.