CA Air Resources Board (CARB) SB100 Process

The last few times we've been to Chi-Town, we've done the typical tourist thing - just took the train in or drove and parked in a Spot-Hero lot for the weekend while we stayed in a hotel downtown. We go for the ethnic food and/or to hit our favorite blues club up in Wrigleyville. It's always fun in a "breakfast somehow cost $50" sort of way.

This is just the normal big city fleecing, and it doesn't hold a candle to the costs in say, Vancouver.

What I'm complaining about is what was occurring when my daughter lived in "real Chicago", out in the neighborhoods. There are no day-rate lots - just on-street parking or permit lots. The frustration was that it's actually cheaper and easier to park at a lot inside the Loop than to find a spot in Wicker Park or Boys Town. Compounding that is that the vehicle needs to be moved regularly, or it'll get towed. The net/net is that visiting friends or family who live in an apartment with no off-street parking out in the neighborhoods is nothing at all like going to a trade show at McCormick Place and staying at a hotel on Michigan Ave.

People shoot each other over parking places in the tougher parts of town (which is everywhere), and the cops are more interested in ascertaining if your car hasn't moved in 24 hrs than if you had to shoot at somebody to get the spot in the first place.

@Gordon Nichols posted:

He never got what he thought he ordered from any fast food place in Boston.

I hate to have to be the one to tell you that that probably wasn’t because they didn’t understand what he was saying.

@RS-60 mark posted:

Congratulations @356speedster  I've done the SB100 dance (Oct '20 till Apr '21).  It is beyond frustration.  I know what a relief it is to get that behind you.

Ironically, everyone in the process knows what they are doing and are over-the-top responsive and helpful. "Everyone" meaning the CHP, Brake and Light Inspection station, and the BAR.  "Everyone" does not include the California DMV.  The California DMV defines the term:  cluster _ _ _ _.  They are clueless.  The only thing California DMV excels at is earning their reputation for incompetence.  They are really good at that.

Footnote:  6 months ago we moved from California to Florida, and naturally had to register our vehicles in our new state.  OMG!!!!  What a pleasant difference!  And, compared to CA, so cheap!

What happens when you have regulations and bureaucracy up the wazoo. Part of the ongoing supply problems via the West coast are partly if not mostly attributed to that, some beef about the Diesel trucks.

@Robert M posted:

I have never understood paying Personal Property Taxes on a boat, car, or any other personal conveyance.

So the government there is taxing you twice? Once when you bought it through sales taxes and every year after that through PPT? We pay Property Taxes on our homes but we don't pay sales taxes when they're purchased.

So Robert, are you thinking you don't pay property tax on your vehicles(s) every year in CA?  Indeed, a tax of .65% of your vehicle's current value is added to your CA license fee every year.  That's a property tax.  You pay it every year.  The more expensive your vehicle's value, the more tax you pay.

@RS-60 mark posted:

So Robert, are you thinking you don't pay property tax on your vehicles(s) every year in CA?  Indeed, a tax of .65% of your vehicle's current value is added to your CA license fee every year.  That's a property tax.  You pay it every year.  The more expensive your vehicle's value, the more tax you pay.

Hadn't thought of it that way. When I had a boat I actually got a Personal Property Tax bill just like my house. And now that you've mentioned it I guess we do, albeit, very low considering we are in California. I just looked it up and there are 27 states that charge personal property taxes on vehicles with Louisiana being the lowest at .10%, CA in second at .65%, and Virginia at the top with 4.05%. Some of the states not collecting PPT on vehicles surprised me considering how much they tax everything else. And a few states don't collect PPT on vehicles, don't charge sales tax on vehicle purchases, and collect very little on vehicle registrations.