First it was the coiffed crusader, Attorney General Mike Beebe, who decided to become a vehicle inspector by challenging the Ford Motor Company on its claim that the vehicles sold to police agencies were heavy duty. Not so he says because some gurus in other states are saying they aren’t and I need to get on the band wagon; besides I have an expert who can eyeball the parts and determine ordinary parts or heavy duty parts. If all of that wasn’t the work of doofus types then doofus has no definition.

Now the state revenue doofus characters have come up with a scheme to collect on certain loaned cars that will actually cost the state money. The crux of the matter is the state law that prevents anyone but dealers or their associates from using dealer plates like regular plates, thus avoiding sales taxes on the vehicles in use. The dealers in the tax em’ gun sights are the ones who loan cars to the state colleges and universities and which saves the taxpayers money and gives the dealers some nice free advertising.

Oh no said Tim Leathers, the state tax commissioner; those guys are misusing those plates and cheating the state out of money that would be collected when the vehicles are sold. He more or less huffed and puffed to the effect that you can’t have anything that moves in any manner avoiding sales tax since his job is to collect taxes. And by dang dad gum it he is going to make those tax evading varmints cough up that money because he is the man who collects taxes and ... oh, he said that was his job, didn’t he. 

In this mess is the law of unintended consequences. The law was passed to stop a few dealers from allowing dealers' plates to be used by cronies and others so they could avoid the sales taxes. It is a typical move by the poobahs of the legislature who never pass up an opportunity to make life difficult for everyone under the name of solving a problem that really isn’t much of a problem. In their zeal to collect a small amount of tax money from dealer plate use violators, the law has the effect of costing the state many times more than the amount that would be collected from stopping the abuse.

If the tax the varmints department has its way, the people who use loaner cars will have to buy them and who do you think will be required to foot the bill for all those cars?  The taxpayers of course, and schools with strapped revenue will be forced to divvy up thousands to buy the cars at taxpayers expense, using already scarce dollars to pay for the state grab of a small amount of tax money. The scenario is one of the more ridiculous ideas and maneuvers of the tax department. Surely there is someone out there with enough wisdom to understand how foolish it is and can put a stop to it.

One individual said there was no reason for the state to go to this level of enforcement. Oh but there is and it is called tax money and extra revenue and they want it. No matter that their intended action will cost the state more than they will receive. There is green out there and by hang they are going to try to grab it.

They are being penny wise and pound foolish and it proves once again that the bureaucrats have never seen a dollar they didn’t like to grab, especially when the money belongs to someone else.\

© 07-27-2005 DEC