Lake Havasu City, AZ – Supervisor Buster Johnson would like to make the public aware of a proposed piece of legislation known as HB2625 which adds another tax on our already overburdened taxpayers. This proposed legislation made it through the House without any opposition or without one “no” vote and has been passed to the Senate.
This “fee” will be added to an already over bloated additional fee schedule on “every fine, penalty and forfeiture imposed and collected by the courts for criminal offenses and any civil penalty imposed and collected for a civil traffic violation and fine, penalty or forfeiture for a violation of the motor vehicle statutes, for any local ordinance relating to the stopping, standing or operation of a vehicle for a violation of the game and fish statutes in Title 17”.
“It used to be you received a ticket for $65.50 and $65.50 was all you paid. Now if you get a ticket for $250 the additional fees are $243 and it goes up. One of the DUI fees is $4,623 plus the cost of the ticket. Once again, the government has found a way to take monies from you and put the funds to work for other causes” stated Supervisor Johnson.
Just a few of the more than 50 allowable fees are medical services enhancement, clean elections, elected officials retirement, law library and law library improvement. This proposed Victims’ Rights Enforcement Fund would add to the two fees already assessed for victims’ rights and victims’ assistance.
“In FY13, Supervisor Johnson stated, “over $20 million was collected from taxpayers in 4 categories of additional fees alone.” All of these assessments fall under the category of a “sin tax” and by saying it is for a good cause doesn’t make it right. “I believe individuals should be able to choose the charities and candidates they wish to support,” Johnson stated. “It is not up to the government to decide who you are going to contribute to” Johnson added.
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