Tax Crackdown Pushes Crack Back

Bellyachers Unite

One day every year car owners in Nebraska pay their car taxes, many if not most, reluctantly.

A man in line at the Sarpy County DMV told me, "It was a $5,000 car and I paid 268 dollars. I don't see the need for it."

Senator Ray Janssen, who runs a grocery store in Hooper, Nebraska is the legislature's point man on taxes, "Everybody bellyaches about paying that (car) tax."

But Janssen (the Chairman of the Legislature's Revenue Committee) thinks the tax is fair.

Last year alone though eight thousand Nebraskans didn't pay their car taxes. Earlier this year I reported that some drivers found a licensing loophole in Oregon, while others illegally licensed their cars closer to home, in Iowa and South Dakota.

According to a new study by the Platte Institute, a Nebraska think tank the owner of a 2007 Honda Odyssey faces the following taxes:

Nebraska: $562.50

Colorado: $455.53

Iowa: $360.00

South Dakota: $61.00

Missouri: $54.75

Platte Institute Editor Berkeley Brown says Nebraska's car tax is "a little bit out of line."

Out of line enough that the Institute believes the tax raises plenty of questions. According to Brown, "Individuals we have spoken to including a couple state senators couldn't tell you exactly where every dollar goes. It is appalling, but is that really their fault or is it the fault of such a complex situation we've created."

Senator Janssen knows where the car taxes go, noting that 120 million dollars goes to schools and 65 million dollars goes to roads.

Brown says the state needs to re-work that formula. "They would call us crazy if we put a tax on school supplies to help fund roads."

But top state officials appear slow to change. Governor Dave Heinman favors cutting income taxes and says it's "premature" to talk about cutting car taxes.

Janssen agrees, "If you want to buy a Lexus I guess pay the tax on it. I don't drive one."

And Beverly Neth the head of the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles has this message for anyone cheating on their car taxes. "It's not saving money, it's a criminal act quite frankly."

So far an ongoing State crackdown on those illegally licensing their cars has already pulled in 850 thousand dollars.

But critics of Nebraska's car tax believe the state will make far more money if the tax was lower because car cheats wouldn't cheat to begin with.

Senator Janssen tells me if someone can put those numbers together he'd like to see them.

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