Do you actually live in MA? There's a lot wrong with what you say.
2) We don't even have to register our cars every year. And you can renew online, so you don't have to sit in the RMV at all. (I did mine a month or two ago.) When you buy a new car the dealer registers it on the spot for you.
3) MA deregulated the the insurance policies a long time ago. Like 10 or more years ago? I can't even remember it was long enough ago. I live in MA and my insurer is.. wait for it. Geico.
4) About the only toll road in the state is the Pike. We have a few bridge tolls. Realistically a bunch of the surrounding states around us have far more tolls. NH has tons of them on roads that many people have to regularly travel. NY has the Thruway. Maine has tolls on the main highways. VT is about the only one around that has less tolls than MA. Anyone complaining about driving in Cambridge is just "doing it wrong". It's super dense and the city is just not set up to support a car-centric lifestyle and they don't want your car there at all.
5) Excise tax reduces to almost nothing unless you constantly flip your car. And that's the town not the state collecting it.
There is a lot of entitlement to think you deserve to park your private car wherever you like.
2) Sure we don't get screwed on registration like people in CA do but we still get screwed. People who buy used really get screwed hard because of the taxes on "value" as described.
3) Not really. Most of the cheap, cheap carriers (e.g. "The General") that keep prices of all the carriers low don't exist in this state
4)NH and Maine toll the tourist highways only. I have no problem with them making money off the people who will be the death of their states. Personally I think they should 10x the toll for out of state plates then refund most of it if you cross the border going the other direction. If you have to compare yourself to NY when it comes to cost of living or individual freedom you've already lost. I will agree that nobody with a brain should be driving in Boston/Cambridge.
5) Unless you own a "luxury" brand. I pay under $40 on my 90s crap. My friend pays ~$200 on his same age Town and Country.
>There is a lot of entitlement to think you deserve to park your private car wherever you like.
I think the GP is saying that for all the taking (taxing) MA does the amount of giving back (in the form of services and social programs) MA does is kind of annoying. All these taxes would be one thing if we had good infrastructure but we don't.
Most places have built way more infrastructure than they can afford to maintain. This isn't an MA only problem. This is a nationwide problem.
Likely if you looked at your state/city/county budgets, they are spending more on road construction and maintenance than they are receiving in vehicle related taxes and fees.
>Likely if you looked at your state/city/county budgets, they are spending more on road construction and maintenance than they are receiving in vehicle related taxes and fees.
I can't just look at the budget. That will tell me what they're telling the public they're spending on X. That will not tell me how much of the budget the people allocating the money expect to actually further X and how much they expect to get sapped by unnecessary overhead along the way. A non trivial amount of that is just monopoly money for the politically well connected. There are administrators and managers who are paid a salary to twiddle their thumbs because they know people. There are projects that exist for no reason other than to be a jobs program. You can't tell what's what from the outside. I have immediate family members in state government in MA so it's not like I'm talking out my ass. I get to hear complaints about this multiple times per week.
>VT is about the only one around that has less tolls than MA.
Don't forget Connecticut! Connecticut borders Mass and has no tolls in the entire state. There's been some movement since the election to add tolls though.
5) I flip cars all the time, and it's irrelevant. I bought the car with cash, paid to register it, paid the sales tax with cash, pay tax whenever I buy gas, pay tolls whenever I go somwhere... Why does the town need to make money off my car when the state already has 4 times?
You can have metered parking without forcing taxpaying people to pay for it. What if you just made the price for a 2h parking slip $0? You still have meter maids giving out tickets, right? I thought it wasn't about the revenue..... right?
2) We don't even have to register our cars every year. And you can renew online, so you don't have to sit in the RMV at all. (I did mine a month or two ago.) When you buy a new car the dealer registers it on the spot for you.
3) MA deregulated the the insurance policies a long time ago. Like 10 or more years ago? I can't even remember it was long enough ago. I live in MA and my insurer is.. wait for it. Geico.
4) About the only toll road in the state is the Pike. We have a few bridge tolls. Realistically a bunch of the surrounding states around us have far more tolls. NH has tons of them on roads that many people have to regularly travel. NY has the Thruway. Maine has tolls on the main highways. VT is about the only one around that has less tolls than MA. Anyone complaining about driving in Cambridge is just "doing it wrong". It's super dense and the city is just not set up to support a car-centric lifestyle and they don't want your car there at all.
5) Excise tax reduces to almost nothing unless you constantly flip your car. And that's the town not the state collecting it.
There is a lot of entitlement to think you deserve to park your private car wherever you like.