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I'm driving a car I don't drive much because my normal car is in the shop. Naturally its always a surprise when the lights come on behind you.

Of course I got immediately nervous. I pull over, fail to use my directional to change lanes and to turn on to a side street.

As I am doing all this I am "ok forgot to use my directional", "ok forgot to use it again" I remembered to turn off the car and put both hands on the steering wheel.

"License and Insurance sir. Do you know why I stopped you." "Yes" and I point to my expired registration sticker.

I get out license and CHL and hand them both to him. I'm nervous as hell.

What I should have expected, but it was a complete surprise when he said, "Where is your gun" I think how did he know I owned a gun, oh yeah I gave him my CHL duh.

"I replied, I am not carrying" (yes I know I should have been) That probably was not the best answer as "home" was the correct answer. But he accepted that.

He said "did you know your registration is from 08, we don't get many of those anymore. " I said "the new one is in the back seat"

"If you would like to step out of the car I will let you put it on" ahh CHL may be working here.

His partner ran my plates, they were not registered for this car anymore. "I'll need to see the registration letter that is with the sticker" "Do you have new plates at home" "Yes, I'm sorry I don't drive this car much" Registration license number matched the correct plates they had in the computer. The car was not stolen. Glad I had the new registration with me or this could have been a big problem.

"If you put the sticker on here and promise to put the plates on when you go home, I'm not going to write you a ticket"

I want to say it was the nicest stop, I have ever had. He was really polite, and tried to put me at ease the whole time.

It could have been just a really great police officer, or it was the CHL? Maybe both.

The Stamp Act of 1765 was one of the precipitating causes of the American Revolution (though it took a while). It was a tax on all printed matter, legal documents, and gambling paraphernalia circulated in the British colonies of North America. The amount of the tax ranged from three pence to six pounds on a few items. Six pounds is roughly equivalent to $10 today. At the time it was several months' income for many people.

The tax was not collected methodically and was repealed within a year.

What public good, exactly, does that $50 window sticker serve?

- Jim

seamusTX wrote:The Stamp Act of 1765 was one of the precipitating causes of the American Revolution (though it took a while). It was a tax on all printed matter, legal documents, and gambling paraphernalia circulated in the British colonies of North America. The amount of the tax ranged from three pence to six pounds on a few items. Six pounds is roughly equivalent to $10 today. At the time it was several months' income for many people.

The tax was not collected methodically and was repealed within a year.

What public good, exactly, does that $50 window sticker serve?

- Jim

About as much as a $140 piece of plastic.

tbrown wrote:

seamusTX wrote:The Stamp Act of 1765 was one of the precipitating causes of the American Revolution (though it took a while). It was a tax on all printed matter, legal documents, and gambling paraphernalia circulated in the British colonies of North America. The amount of the tax ranged from three pence to six pounds on a few items. Six pounds is roughly equivalent to $10 today. At the time it was several months' income for many people.

The tax was not collected methodically and was repealed within a year.

What public good, exactly, does that $50 window sticker serve?

- Jim

About as much as a $140 piece of plastic.

Touché! Except that you forgot to add in the cost of the class.

seamusTX wrote:The Stamp Act of 1765 was one of the precipitating causes of the American Revolution (though it took a while). It was a tax on all printed matter, legal documents, and gambling paraphernalia circulated in the British colonies of North America. The amount of the tax ranged from three pence to six pounds on a few items. Six pounds is roughly equivalent to $10 today. At the time it was several months' income for many people.

The tax was not collected methodically and was repealed within a year.

What public good, exactly, does that $50 window sticker serve?

- Jim

I dunno maybe bridges, roads.

loadedliberal wrote: I dunno maybe bridges, roads.

Upkeep cost money. How much money can definitely be debated though...

loadedliberal wrote:

seamusTX wrote:What public good, exactly, does that $50 window sticker serve?

I dunno maybe bridges, roads.

Is it allocated that way?

You won't find a bigger defender of taxes to pay for a public good than my humble self. However, many of these taxes and fees seem to vanish into thin air.

The fee that DPS collects for the CHL application literally vanishes. The budget of the CHL division of DPS is a small fraction of the total fees collected.

The state is supposed to allocate the sales tax on sporting goods to TPWD, but we have state parks closed like abandoned cemeteries.

- Jim

loadedliberal wrote:I dunno maybe bridges, roads.

I don't have my paperwork handy but I think only $10-15 goes to that. It seems like fuel taxes provide much more toward roads, and it's arguable a better way because larger and heavier vehicles usually use more fuel.

Isn't the registration fee for a Ford F350 lower than a Honda Civic in Texas? I think I remember reading that somewhere.

seamusTX wrote:

loadedliberal wrote:

seamusTX wrote:What public good, exactly, does that $50 window sticker serve?

I dunno maybe bridges, roads.

Is it allocated that way?

You won't find a bigger defender of taxes to pay for a public good than my humble self. However, many of these taxes and fees seem to vanish into thin air.

The fee that DPS collects for the CHL application literally vanishes. The budget of the CHL division of DPS is a small fraction of the total fees collected.

The state is supposed to allocate the sales tax on sporting goods to TPWD, but we have state parks closed like abandoned cemeteries.

- Jim

Do you remember when the Sam Houston Tollway was first built? "It'll have tolls at first to pay for the cost of construction, but after we recoup the cost, they will be taken away. *Time passes* So we've got back the cost, but we're keeping all the tolls and occasionally raising them to pay for upkeep". <----This all makes perfect sense

You know why there's no toll roads in El Paso? Nobody would ever pay the toll, they'd just drive over the bridge and go home

No tollway ever becomes free. It has not happened in the history of humanity.

HCTRA is like a metastatic cancerous tumor. They want to expand to have a toll bridge across Galveston Bay and probably other ventures.

However, I happily pay for an EZTAG and wish the toll were high enough that these butt-dragging trucks would stay off the tollroad. Sheesh. Why do they pay to drive 50 MPH when they can do it for free on the frontage road?

- Jim

seamusTX wrote:No tollway ever becomes free. It has not happened in the history of humanity.

Actually, Interstate 30 between Dallas & Ft. Worth used to be a toll road known as the "Dallas-Ft. Worth Turnpike".

That's the only one I know of that went from toll to free.

OK. I was wrong.

Probably Roman toll roads are no longer toll roads since the Roman Empire became defunct, either.

They built toll roads in the Chicago area that somehow became interstates (I-90 and 294). They were supposed to be paid off in 20 years or so. They still are toll roads. They always will be. Too many people make too much profit from them.

- Jim

Wow, kinda veered way off of topic, so let me say...sounds like it was a great stop. I do get the feeling that a pro-CHL LEO might cut slack for some people. I would say this would only be in instances when you are not acting like a bonehead or doing something really stupid. If he was one of those guys who thinks the weapon belongs only on his hip, he could have made your day much more miserable.

RJ

johnson0317 wrote:Wow, kinda veered way off of topic,

You are right, and I did not help the situation.

My point is that we the people are paying a police officer to drive around in a 200-horsepower vehicle that costs some $50,000 to give tickets (or not) to a citizen for failing to have a piece of adhesive on the windshield.

What would Patrick Henry think of that?

- Jim