LICENSE PLATES

I just mailed the form for the renewal of my automobile registration, along with a check, to the Maryland Department Of Transportation. It's a bi-annual ritual automobile owners perform. In Maryland, the fee is $128 and the money is to be used only for road construction and repair.

I have two questions. First, why, exactly, do I have to register my automobile with the government? Second, what is the money really used for?

My guess, to answer the second question first, is that most of the money goes to pay the people who open the envelopes, deposit the checks, credit the proper accounts, keep track of who paid and then mail out the new plate. In addition, in Maryland we are required to have our automobiles inspected periodically to ensure that they don't pollute excessively. The folks who perform the inspections have to be paid, too, after all. It sounds similar to highway tolls where most of the money collected goes to pay the toll collectors who collect the tolls.

Actually, in Maryland as in most states, they don't really mail out new license plates each year. What they do is send us a sticker to place on our old plate showing that we paid for a new plate and if it had been Maryland policy to actually send a new plate they would have sent one to me. It's sort of a game the government plays.

However, the government says they need the money to pay for roads. Well then, what about the tax on gasoline? Isn't that supposed to pay for the roads? Yes, they say, but the license plate fee is more fair. It is a user fee so that people who use their automobiles on the state's roads, with all the collateral damage cars do, pay for it. But isn't it true that people who drive their automobiles on the state's roads have to buy gasoline and thereby pay a fee based on usage as proportioned by the amount of fuel they buy? "You don't get it," they say. That's true, I don't.

The other question is why do I have to register my automobile with the state in the first place? Why is it the state's business that I bought a car? Well, there are two reasons, I'm told. First, to ensure that I pay the user fee (see above) and, second, for crime prevention.

License plates were introduced into society as a crime prevention method. It would be much easier to trace a car which had been stolen, on the one hand, or used in the commission of a crime, on the other, if there was a sign on the car with a number which could then be traced to the owner.

It seems the criminals ruined everything when they discovered that they could remove a license plate with a screwdriver. I mean, when have any of us heard a car thief say, "Uh, oh! Not that one. It has a state issued license plate on it."

No, I don't think any of those reasons are it. What it really comes down to is that license plates are needed to pay the people who work in the license plate department, and to make it easier for the police to give us tickets.

The simple truth is that we really don't need license plates on our cars. What right does the government have to force us to display a sign, of their design, on our personal property, anyway? If a car owner wishes to have some adornment on his or her vehicle identifying it as one from Maryland, he or she could buy a special plate. It might say, "Hi - I'm from Maryland", or "New York, New York", "Proud To Be From New Jersey". Well, maybe the New Jersey thing is a stretch, but you get the idea.Think of it, a whole new industry - special plates.