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Your Views: State keeps on adding costs a little at a time
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What a shock when I received our tag renewal papers. We bought a car in 2005 for our son to use and, feeling patriotic, we bought a tag displaying the American flag and eagle. No fun name or numbers were added.

Now fast forward to 2010 and our state government has now added a $35 annual fee for that tag and others like it.

We paid up front for the tag and now, five years later, they change the rules. That should apply to new purchases with the consumer aware of the added tax.

This is just another example of how our elected officials spend their time zapping taxpayers. Well, I've had enough of their "add a tax here, add a tax there" mentality.

It's only 1 cent more added to our SPLOST sales tax. It's for the children. No, it's for a $14 million office complex on Browns Bridge. Now they'll have to furnish it, maintain it and expand our taxes.

It's time, folks, to stop this madness and make our government smaller and more transparent. I want to know salaries, who is double-dipping the system and what are the perks on the taxpayers' dime. Instead of kitchen inspections listed in the paper, I want this listed every month. We have to call for accountability from these people who are elected and the bureaucratic nightmare they create.

Boston had its Tea Party because it was finally fed up with all the added taxes by the King of England. I guess this is my "Tag Party" against the hierarchy that run this state. The state will get my patriotic tag back and they can stuff it.

Jane Browder
Gainesville