HB 48: Motor Vehicle Document Fee Income Tax Deduction
While Gov. Markell is looking at ways to get us through our current budget crises, State Rep. Charles Bill Oberle (R 24) has sponsored some odd legislation that will take money out of the state budget, HB 48, just when it is needed most.
This Act allows for a Personal Income Tax deduction for the amount of motor vehicle document fee paid during the tax year 2009. If manufactured in Delaware, the deduction allowed is doubled.
Forget about the asinine double deduction. I understand why lawmakers might want the double deduction, but Delaware only makes up 0.28% of the US population and I don’t see how Delawareans buying cars made in Delaware is going to keep auto manufacturing jobs here.
More to the point, the Document Fee is a large revenue stream for Delaware and if a portion of this is actually deducted, it could mean more devastation to our state budget at absolutely the wrong time.
I am really trying to grasp why this legislation is needed now. What are Oberle and his co-sponsors thinking? The co-sponsors are Republican Representatives Booth, Cathcart, D. Short, Hocker, Lavelle, Outten and Ramone; Republican Senator Connor; and Democratic Representatives Brady, Carson, J. Johnson and Kowalko.
Tags: Delaware
I believe that is William (Bill) Oberle.
Hopefully Kowalko will see this post and offer his thoughts.
Sen. Henry is an additional sponsor, putting her at the same line as Oberle. I think this means Oberle drafted it and Henry thought enough of it to give equal weight as Oberle.
I can venture a guess, but all I have is a guess. I do know that many legislators took a ton of grief for even raising the doc fee the last time. Maybe this is a compromise in regard to the backlash. Again, this is only my guess based on what I heard about the backlash.
Thanks LG. I started writing this prior to finishing my first cup of coffee.
The back of my envelope says the deduction is worth maybe $4o for each car sale (for cars around $20K).
How many cars are we selling in Delaware, that losing $40 per is such a big problem?
It is basically a regressive tax anyway, being flat (ignoring the few high-end cars being sold).
I’d rather do without the tax, and replace the revenue by adding some progressive income tax brackets.
anon, the document fee is 3.75% of book value. Though I don’t know how much the deduction would work out into real money.
The moral of the story is that limousine liberals care not about the burgeoning costs of motor vehicle fees.
Only working stiffs do. (Regressive indeed).
Kowalko knows this.
Others…not so much.
Yeah, Dover is filled with limousine liberals. Puhlease.
You don’t have to 0wn or ride in a limousine to be a limousine liberal.
It’s all about wanting champagne government when you should be on a ripple budget…like so many working people have no choice but to live, to survive.
Nothing like ever-increasing regressive taxation, collected grab after grab in fees and fines and taxes and “violations”.
They ought exempt the whole damn thing and make it a tax credit for lower income people. Why are poor people paying 100’s in DMV fees??
I love it when Republicans start looking out for the common man. Where were you over the last 8 years as the income disparity grew?
Fighting for the same kind of thing I suggested, brother. To exempt the working poor from government’s piranha bites on their living wages.
Where were you, besides bitching and moaning about Republicans?
Why do you hate poor people, Nemksi? Why do you want DMV to collect their subsistence?
Someone should call in and debate Tyler on this!! 888.645.8990…now!!!
It won’t make a difference to the “working poor.” Those who are below the minimum deduction every year won’t be affected.
Granted the minimum deduction for Delaware is considerably lower than the Federal minimum.
anon, the document fee is 3.75% of book value. Though I don’t know how much the deduction would work out into real money.
I just told you 🙂
3.75% (fee) x $20K(book value) = $750
$750 x ~5% (PIT) = $37.5 deduction
If you make less, your PIT is a little less, or if you buy a more expensive car, your fee will be a little higher.
Anybody know how many cars we are selling in Delaware? Not too many this year I guess.
Of those, how many were built in DE?
On the merits, this is a wash.
I think the amount of money is so small, this is basically a grandstanding attempt to build tax-cut credentials for the next campaign cycle.
If it were a serious attempt to help working people or the auto industry, they’d be proposing Tyler’s idea of a credit for the whole fee for lower incomes, not just a deduction.
Where’s the controller with his fiscal notes when you need him?
Where’s the controller with his fiscal notes when you need him?
His selected-few Senate Masters haven’t given him permission to comment.
I could tell you where he is… Please file a FOIA request, when we get $65K to hire someone to process your request, we’ll get that right out to ya.
LOL, LG.
As anon said, On the merits, this is a wash.
Per person this is a blip, however on the aggregate level, it could be real money — that is real money prior the to bailouts this fall.
I believe that the Finance/Budget Committee has more important work than debating this bill.
What no Hairless McDribble on this one 🙂
Thanks for looking out for me Repubs.
While El Somnambulo can’t be sure, this bill appears to be designed to appeal to the auto workers, who are prominent in the districts of many of the sponsors.
El Somnambulo thinks this is sadly a symbolic, as opposed to substantive, piece of legislation for a dying part of Delaware’s economy.
The prime sponsors are Oberle and Sen. Henry. This means that, if the bill should reach the Senate, Sen. Henry would floor manage the bill rather than, say, Sen. Cook who, as Chair of the Joint Finance Committee, would otherwise sponsor it.
The bill will almost certainly have a fiscal note, but it likely hasn’t been drafted yet.
Speaking of fiscal notes and Sen. Cook, there is no doubt in the mind of the Beast Who Slumbers that it was Nancy Cook who sought a ‘killer fiscal note’ to derail HB 1.
Cook’s domain is the Controller General’s Office. Her modus operandi on the JFC for years has been cutting fiscal deals in JFC Executive Sessions, a way of life that would be jeapordized by HB 1. She is as anti-reform as they come, and she is a close ally of Uncle Thurm.
Finally, there is a couch in Controller General Russ Larson’s office, and Cook’s not-insubstantial buttocks (El Somnambulo is a master of understatement) perfectly match the permanent imprints in the cushion.
In order to defeat your enemy, you must know who it is. This message has been brought to you by El Somnambulo as a public service. Use this information wisely.
Oh, and if Russ Larson and Sen. Cook are really serious about fiscal responsibility, all they have to do is head across the hall from the Controller General’s office to Legislative Council, which is staffed primarily by long-time cronies of Sen. Cook’s. On most days, their most strenuous activity is to play solitaire on the computer. Either get one of them to actually do some work, or excise the dead weight, and you can more than afford the phony cost to carry out HB 1.
Shhh…. nobody say anything.
I just want to bask in the light that is El Somnambulo
El Som,
Your words regarding Sen. Cook continue to affirm my belief that this is one woman in Dover doing what she does for her own good. I’ve got a story over on my blog about something she and Adams did to Markell recently. You may want to check it out. One DeLib commenter is giving me hell because he thinks it’s bullshit.
Kowalko is strangly silent here. He usually likes to jump in on blogs conversations. This is a stupid deduction as Nemski points out since the auto companies have abandonned us.
Mike, you really ought to stick to using the word ‘allegedly’ when you are repeating second hand information, dear. It doesn’t make much sense that Markell would still be subject to anger over Carney when the water is under the bridge. Unless Markell actually produces the stones to dismantle the horrid figure-heads of the DEM party (Daniello and Paoli) then Cook doesn’t have much to gas about.
What do you want to bet that Markell has brokered a deal to let things stand as is for the most part? And if so, why the hell would Cook attack at this point.
Saw JK this AM and asked about this. I’ll not answer for him, but he has been running around like the proverbial chicken without a head this week.
My impression is that it was largely symbolic and borne of frustration.