Thank you sir, may I have another? Cadillac Deval Imposes $5 Fee For Being Abused At The Registry Of Motor Vehicles

As if a visit to the Registry of Motor Vehicles isn’t painful enough – now we get to pay a fee for being treated like crap by RMV hacks.

Gov. Deval Patrick is quietly whacking beleaguered Bay State motorists with a $5 fee to use Registry of Motor Vehicle branches to renew their licenses and registrations, outraging critics who say the “back-door tax” hits poor and elderly drivers the hardest.

The fee, which goes into effect today, comes on the heels of a $10 license renewal increase last year.

“In this economic climate we shouldn’t be nickel-and-diming people for mandated services,” said state Sen. Steve Baddour (D-Methuen), who co-chairs the Legislative Transportation Committee, and is planning to look into repealing the fee.

[…]

“This is a back-door tax that hits the poor and elderly the hardest,” said Tarah Donoghue, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Republican Party. “They can’t afford or don’t have Internet access and computers. The Patrick-Murray administration is burdening those people who can afford it the least.”

Our tax dollars already pay the bloated salaries of surly RMV employees.  The fee for license renewal was increased by $10 last year.  And now we get charged an additional fee for having the nerve to walk into a Registry branch that we pay for to conduct RMV business.  Outrageous, yet oh-so typical for Deval et al.