More Fees From the House's Bag O' Tricks

The warm spring weather must be going to the heads of the folks in the State House, those busy little worker bees passing House bills left and right, and last night their attention was focused on state parks, as they passed a bill that will add a $5 opt-out fee on driver's license renewals. We're not upset about the $5 itself, but how those tricksters are trying to get it, placing the fee there in the "hopes" that we don't notice and select to opt-out. (You know it would be written in size 8 font.) The bill is now off to the Senate, where we hope it becomes opt-in.

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By Kim P. in News on April 21, 2009 9:30 AM

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Contextual

MI Dave, I'm pretty sure there are some non-subagent on the list you can choose from to avoid the fee when renewing online. It is annoying that they hide the ball a bit though.

Check the bill. The fee already exists as opt-in. They are changing it to opt-out to capture more funds.

bilco

MIDave -

You're dead on. The subagent fee is a complete scam.

This whole issue just shows how gutless our legislators are - if you need to raise a fee, raise a fee. Don't be a coward and hide it, preying on the ignorance of folks.

MIDave

What the WSDOL should do is allow people to renew tabs online without being forced to pay the stupid Ticketmaster-like $4 "subagent" fee. I'd be happy to put that money toward the parks rather than line the pockets of those subagents.

Eco Geek

Yeah, that is a tough one. Maybe the parks should adopt the strategy used by the American Museum of Natural History (among others). They list the admission price as $15/adult, but then in tiny print at the bottom of the sign is the note that this is a suggested donation, so evidently you can pay whatever your want, or nothing at all and still see the museum.

I wasn't clear on the details, and didn't mind paying the whole amount cause I wanted to see some god-damn-dinosaurs.