I tend to agree with editor Mike Wolcott with the cost of registering your vehicle in California (“The golden state of DMV fees and taxes,” Jan. 7). Being a retired CHP officer, not relocating out of California, I pay the same fees and taxes as everyone else.
But on the other side of the coin, I became very knowledgeable of California residents who purposely register their vehicles out of state to keep from paying California registration fees and sales taxes. Their registering to a P.O. Box in Oregon was the biggest problem.
California residents could, by registering in Oregon, register a light truck for two years and pay $32, or a motorhome or RV trailer and pay $120 for two years.
I found 14 California residents using the same post office drop box in Sandy, Oregon. This is how car dealers sold and registered vehicles (no sales tax in Oregon) so the California resident could pay $32 for a two-year license. No California sales tax was paid if the vehicle was brought to California in over 60 days. As a result you can illegally drive on California highways for two years on the Oregon plate, and renew your Oregon license and drive another two years.
I investigated a “Mr. T” driving his new Blue Bird, $450,000 motorhome on I-5 with a new Oregon license plate. Purchased in South Carolina, and four days later registered in Brothers, Oregon to a P.O. Box with 10 barren acres. His home was in Indian Wells, near President Gerald Ford.
A DMV investigator observed two Mercedes vehicles with Oregon plates parked in his driveway next to the motorhome. He was cited, appealed the citation, was found guilty and fined $24,000. This was just a couple of examples I investigated over 10 years of registration violations along with being the commercial officer assigned to the Oroville area CHP office.
Every year we vote tax increases to maintain our roads and infrastructure and those designed funds are siphoned off by our governor and legislature, i.e. the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017. If every California resident registered their vehicles in this state, the problem would probably be taken care of. CHP officers have been trained regarding the registration problem. Also, California watercraft and planes have been investigated for this problem.
Let’s look at a California resident deliberately registering vehicles out of state to avoid paying California higher registration and sales tax. When confronted about why they are towing a California registered vehicle with an Oregon plated motorhome, they provide a valid California driver’s license and have a California homeowner’s exemption on their principal residence (no Oregon driver’s license) claiming they are an Oregon property owner.
Having a valid California driver’s license, homeowner’s exemption, being employed in the state, or having children in school, you are a California resident required to register your vehicles in the state of California. I have found that employees of California’s DMV and Oregon’s DMV are aware of this problem and very cooperative.
As you see, at the lower level, something is being done. Work needs to start at the upper level.
Ed Roach is a retired California Highway Patrol officer. Born and raised in the San Joaquin Valley, he served in the US Navy, spent five years as a Los Angeles County deputy sheriff and 30 years as a CHP officer. He resides in Gridley.
