Cost of truck registration (live, costs, rail)

[motoracer51]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

I get rewarded for driving my old Chrysler because it's simple, classy, and runs like a scalded ape.

Buying an overpriced depreciating piece of garbage while running up credit debt and having a throwaway vehicle shortly after it's finally paid off could be its own reward, I guess.

40 and 50 grand for a four door truck so Candy can go get her toenails painted? No thanks.

You want to drive around in your prius? Great! More room to park my Chrysler. But you ain't gonna get Soccer Mom out of her Ford Excursion with the 465 cid Powerstroke.

But it looks good on paper.

I'm not telling you, or anyone what they should drive. I'm saying if someone want to buy a new, fuel efficient vehicle every 3 years, why do we penalize them? If anything, it should be a flat registration fee for everyone.

Why do you care if Candy spends 40-50K on a truck to get her nails done, or If want to drive around in a Prius( I wouldn't buy one personally). You sound somewhat jealous and envious.

How would you like it if they made the fees on your old gal $300/yr plus a carbon footprint tax, of say, $100/yr?

[R478n6z44]

I pay about $80-90/year for my late 90's model jeep. But then again, Im in Park Co. which has no emissions testing. Its fun to watch the cost of renewing your plates drop every year.

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

I pay 65 for a sportster, about 80 for my 63 Chrysler, and more than that for my half ton truck.

I was wrong about that. I pay about 80 for the truck, 65 for the car and less for the bike.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

I was wrong about that. I pay about 80 for the truck, 65 for the car and less for the bike.

Where I live now, that would be about $10 less than the registration fee for a BRAND NEW truck or car, respectively.

[McGowdog]

That's what I'm saying. In Colorado we've been getting ripped off and gouged since about 2010.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

That's what I'm saying. In Colorado we've been getting ripped off and gouged since about 2010.

We have TABOR to thank for that, and the other nickel and dime "fees" that are being charged in an effort to cover the cost of government.

Perhaps some enterprising politician will come along and make a grand bargain with voters to dump all of these fees in exchange for raising the state's income tax rate by an equal amount. If the net cost to me is the same, I'd be for it, and I'd stop feeling nickel-and-dimed to death. It would also let the state terminate those people now employed at collecting all these fees. Makes too much sense and won't happen, the usual fear tactics (Don't trust the pols! It's a trick!) will kill the deal.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

That's what I'm saying. In Colorado we've been getting ripped off and gouged since about 2010.

Well, here is the part that will really gall you. Several years ago, when the Colorado Legislature was contemplating ways to raise additional revenue for highway maintenance, there were two main suggestions on the table. One was to significantly raise vehicle registration fees upon Colorado residents--which was what was ultimately adopted. The other was to raise the state fuel taxes by a few cents, which would have raised the same amount of revenue. That latter proposal--which would have meant that out-of-state drivers and truckers, who do much to clog many Colorado highways, would have helped fund Colorado road maintenance--was killed. Why? Because the interstate (non-Colorado) trucking lobby, along with Colorado tourist promoters, convinced the Legislature that it would be "unpopular" to actually place some of Colorado's road maintenance cost burden on people who use Colorado roads, but don't even live in the state. So, you, as a Colorado resident, get to subsidize out-of-state drivers who use Colorado roads (of which I, now no longer a Colorado resident, am one).

Oh, and out-of-control growth, where the costs of road construction generated by sprawling land development get socialized on the taxpayers, is another reason that Colorado registration fees are so high. So, you, as a long-time Coloradan, get to help pay the costs for growth that you likely didn't want, and that very likely doesn't economically benefit you at all.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

.... The other was to raise the state fuel taxes by a few cents, which would have raised the same amount of revenue. That latter proposal--which would have meant that out-of-state drivers and truckers, who do much to clog many Colorado highways, would have helped fund Colorado road maintenance--was killed. Why? Because the interstate (non-Colorado) trucking lobby, along with Colorado tourist promoters, convinced the Legislature that it would be "unpopular" to actually place some of Colorado's road maintenance cost burden on people who use Colorado roads, but don't even live in the state. So, you, as a Colorado resident, get to subsidize out-of-state drivers who use Colorado roads (of which I, now no longer a Colorado resident, am one)....

Exactly the sort of "fear" tactic that I spoke to. They did similar fear tactics when it was proposed to raise the Severance Tax on oil and gas extracted from Colorado. Truth is huge amounts of natural gas pulled from the ground here in COLO gets piped as far east as Indiana. It is those out of state buyers who would've paid for the small increase in taxes. The majority of voters here in COLO are just gullible and will believe whatever fear tactic they see on TV.

Meanwhile, vehicle registration costs will rise on Colorado's population while big biz and out of state drivers get a pass. Thank you TABOR.

[Idunn]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Several years ago, when the Colorado Legislature was contemplating ways to raise additional revenue for highway maintenance ...

It might be considered that, besides registration, other related costs to running a vehicle aside from fuel would be such as new tires and fixing suspension pieces trashed. From the likes of the numerous potholes that Colorado always seems to have an abundance, each of long and growing duration.

If having yet to get there in person to investigate, I've heard that somehow the German's keep their roads and especially Autobahn as smooth as billiard tables—and all in a climate at times as vicious as Colorado's. But I dare anyone to find any mountain road in this state without soon some—and usually plenty—irregularities. Whether old and new. If we preferring and needing decent roads, somehow it seems a gross misdirection of public funds to give them to CDOT and their associated cabal of incompetent contractors, who could not create a truly perfect road, from scratch or not, EVEN if trying to do so.

Which they seemingly are not, as never having accomplished the feat. Most often the opposite. So one wonders why incessantly putting up with near-constant construction projects and road delays (and grossly huge costs for same we are paying) when sadly knowing the end result will invariably be regrettable.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by Idunn

Which they seemingly are not, as never having accomplished the feat. Most often the opposite. So one wonders why incessantly putting up with near-constant construction projects and road delays (and grossly huge costs for same we are paying) when sadly knowing the end result will invariably be regrettable.

This is not unique to Colorado. Many years ago (as far back as the 1930's), the US highway lobby figured out that the taxpayers would never stand for the initial cost of building long-lived highways. So, while most European roads were designed and built to last at least 50 years between major rebuilds, the US chose quantity over quality, building US highway infrastructure to only last about 25 years before major rebuilding is necessary. Of course, much of the US highway infrastructure has had to last WAY beyond that without major rebuilding--just a lot of continual piecemeal patching. The result is a highway infrastructure so deteriorated that there isn't enough public and private capital left in this country to ever rebuild it. So, the roads will just get worse and worse, sucking up more and more taxpayer dollars. Of course, nobody wants to fess up to that reality. Colorado roads are heading toward oblivion faster because of the harsh geography and climate in much of the state, but the rest of the US will get to the same dead end soon enough, too.

Two great books that precisely explain how US drivers and taxpayers got fleeced by the highway lobby:

Asphalt Nation, by Jane Holtz Kay

and

Getting There: The Epic Struggle Between Road and Rail in the American Century, by Stephen Goddard