Letter: Time to strengthen license laws
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Time to strengthen license laws
Washington has done a good job of supporting its schools and infrastructure while Oregon has had a school financial crisis as well a state financial crisis. Now we have many cars with Oregon plates dropping off kids at our schools. The fact that we do not enforce our own laws concerning auto registration is amazing, but the issue is deeper than that. We have to enforce the license plate and driver's license laws, or we will end up with all of Oregon in our schools and nobody paying taxes. Taxes are part of what pays for good infrastructure and good schools.
We can alleviate this by the following:
• Mandate that anyone who registers a child in a Southwest Washington school should have a Washington driver's license or have to get it within seven days.
• In order to get the driver's license, they have to register all of their cars in Washington.
• If there is an issue paying the sales tax (over $1,000), the state should assist with a payment plan that helps them get legal.
We have a great state and wonderful things happening in Southwest Washington. Let's not mess that up by having people take advantage by not paying their fair share.
Phil Weatherford
Vancouver
