The accomplishments made by the insurance industry are huge and numerous :).

...move along!

I once asked an agent about that. The explanation was so ridiculous I don't think he even believed it. You are right, of course, there is NO WAY it makes sense.

Of course. Ask Willie Sutton.

Strange how some people believe that business' give worse deals than the govt. ...most politicians are nothing more than a business into themselves. ...working the system for personal gain.

The politician whines about how he's really really trying to make your life better (as he takes money from EVERYONE, w/ no tangible return). Whereas the business gets cut-off quickly, if not providing something of value in return.

Chew on this local "backdoor tax/fee" we are most likely getting to fund our public transit system.

There is a significant backstory about how long ago, the local utility company agreed to own and run a public transit system here for 100 years in exchange for being the only utility company in the city limits. A coupla decades ago, many of the buses began looking pretty ragged, there were lots of breakdowns, the routes weren't efficient, etc. so they whined about it to our ******* mayor and city council.

They let the utility company buy out of their contract for $100 million (or some ridiculously inadequate amount), while smarter, more conservative council members pointed out it was a crime to let them off that easily. The city went and bought all new buses, and now, a few years later with the downturn in the economy, they claim they're "underfunded."

There was a referendum on the ballot in Nov. for an increase in local sales taxes to cover it, but it got voted down.
__________________
City Council Picks Your Pocket for Christmas
BY KEVIN FISHER

On the first day of Christmas, City Council gave to me, a new and illegitimate fee …
On the second day of Christmas, City Council gave to me, weakness and duplicity …
On the third day of Christmas, City Council gave to me, higher bills from SCE&G …

This is fun and I could go on for all 12 verses, but let’s focus on the serious points made in just the three listed above.

With its backdoor move to fund the bus system by increasing your power bill (yes, you read that correctly), Columbia City Council has shown yet again that it is neither a fiscally serious nor politically honorable public body.

The people of Richland County spoke on Nov. 2, rejecting the proposed sales tax increase to fund the bus system (and simultaneously create a $750 million unallocated piggybank for local politicos to play with for the next 25 years, perhaps funding road projects, perhaps doing lord knows what with as the players and the politics change over time).

When it came to the fundamental issue of providing a new revenue source for the bus system, backers of the sales tax plan showed poor political judgment in trying to force taxpayers to swat a fly with a sledgehammer. They asked voters to approve more than five times as much money as was needed for the bus system, sinking the plan even in a heavily Democratic, pro-tax, pro-subsidy county.

Indeed, with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheehen carrying Richland County with 67 percent of the vote, the proposed sales tax increase could garner only 49 percent support. While a woefully uninformed local media reported on how surprising it was that the sales tax came so close to passing, it is in fact stunning that it did not win easily given the voter demographics of Richland County.

The difference between Sheheen’s vote and that in favor of the sales tax means that more than 20,000 Democrats and left-leaning independents in Richland County voted against the sales tax hike. The outcome was a wonderful affirmation that you can’t fool all of the people all of the time — or even a majority of them.

But the will of the people is merely an inconvenience to Columbia City Council. Tax increase for transit rejected at the ballot box? So what, we’ll just add it on to your electric bill. Is this legitimate? Who cares, it’s legal. Or at least it is until someone challenges it in court, and that will never happen. Or even if it does, it would be tied up in court for years and in the meantime we can force SCE&G to add this fee to their bills, collect it for us from their customers and turn it over to the family, er, the city, to fund other operations. You know, like the Corleone business model applied to municipal government.

If City Council can do this — arbitrarily increase your power bill for whatever it wishes, with the increase having no relation whatsoever to providing electric and gas service — what might be next? One shudders to think.

Of course, rejecting this scheme would require City Council to apply principle, logic and common sense to the proposal. So naturally, it’s going to pass. In fact, every effort is being made to pass it in the political dark-of-night.

In a matter of 48 hours, the plan was hatched and brought before Council for initial approval — during the week before Christmas. A required public hearing is set for Dec. 28 — during the week after Christmas.

The timing is no accident; rather, it’s a clever ploy (if that’s what you consider clever) to pick your pocket while voters are busy and distracted during the Christmas holidays.

On the fourth day of Christmas, City Council gave to me, a government run incompetently.

Couldn’t resist one more. Merry Christmas to all!

http://www.free-times.com/index.php?cat=11012501074601536&ShowArticle_ID=122 41512102371367

Hey Tim, should I bring up the taxes you pay (road taxes) on the fuel for the ATV's that never make it on the road? You should be refunded this (as should you get a refund on the mogas you use in any airplane) but thats never going to happen!

sorry, Bubbles, I was out skiing the backcountry

but let's git sumthin' straight: I've never claimed that tax & spend, or over taxation is wonderful. What I do not do, is whine about the taxes I pay on the internet. What I do think is that taxes need to be equitably apportioned, and that govt. services have to be paid for.

I am also not a fan of the Laffer curve - it is almost entirely unsupported by reality; in fact, IIRC, jyl has posted on that exact issue.


but this thread is all over the map - try to get back to ATVs or at least hidden taxes (user fees, licensing...) people

ha ha
in washington you dont need insurance to ride a motorcycle on the street...just pay the tab fee to the state and have the appropriate endorsements and off you go...