When I got together with a Tucson friend yesterday my first question was about the photo-surveillance cameras used here; then a ticket is mailed to the citizen-criminal. I was concerned about tardy payment penalties being added to the speeding tickets of travelers who only get snail-mail forwarded every month or two.
My Tucson friend has indeed gotten a camera-based ticket the past year, and his wife got three. Each was over $200. Hers were at the same intersection, but on different days, which helped her think that they were repeated notices of the same "crime". (She didn't read the dates or times apparently.) She didn't pay all three tickets and got her driver's license suspended.
The good news is that the Tucson reich sends somebody to your house before raising the stakes. At another time they called on the telephone. What a relief that was. It keeps the citizen-criminal from being completely at the mercy of snail mail delivery, which alarmed me the most.
How will they handle an out-of-stater?
So far, I've tried to relate the facts with a minimum of spin. Obviously I can't keep this up or I'll bust! Let's back up to the big picture: in a democracy politicians get reelected (for an entire lifetime, typically) by promising key voters (in organized constituencies) benefits, freebies, and goodies at somebody else's expense. Democracy was pretty satisfied with this arrangement for a century or so.
But then this arrangement became passe. Democracy took the next step up in its evolutionary progress: it started promising even more goodies at nobody's expense; that is, it learned to just borrow money for whatever goodies it takes to get reelected.
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It's interesting to sit in traffic court for a few hours, to watch the assembly line of revenue flow. Usually 2 sessions per day, 5 days per week and the place is always packed. That doesn't count the people who just give up and pay the fine without going to court or even all the simultaneous satellite courtrooms spread around a heavily populated area.
I'm about to make a statement that will seem like speculation but, it is fact. No one can drive a vehicle on a public roadway for more than 1/4 mile without doing something they could be fined for. A wheel an inch or two too far one way or the other, a turn signal a few feet too soon or too late, a mile or two per hour too fast OR too slow. Then, there are all the equipment violations one might inadvertently commit. That is how screwed up the laws have gotten.
Now, with the advent of mechanical enforcement, it's barely safe to leave the house. It has almost become a case of needing to protect ourselves from the state.
One of my favorite videos on the subject - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHZMoPV1rog
Hell, I wasn't particularly fond of it all then. It was just a job, not unlike being a garbage collector.
Now that I'm on the other side of the fence, I'm happy to share what I can, insight wise, to try to help keep others from getting caught up in the quagmire that has become our "system."
I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but I still kinda know my way around and know what I can get away with and what I can't. I toe right up to that line... as often as I can.
But yes, stealth tax increases are the growth industry for the next couple decades. Fortunately the ultimate one, carbon tax, has been avoided so far.
Searching the internet found numerous hits including a few of the viral emails that started the whole discussion. The fact from FactCheck.org: "The truth is that only a tiny percentage of home sellers will pay the tax. First of all, only those with incomes over $200,000 a year ($250,000 for married couples filing jointly) will be subject to it. And even for those who have such high incomes, the tax still won’t apply to the first $250,000 on profits from the sale of a personal residence — or to the first $500,000 in the case of a married couple selling their home."