i don't live here

previously, i told you why you should care about runaway government spending. today i am going to explain to you why poorly written laws suck.

i live in maryland. i own a house in maryland. i pay taxes in maryland. my paycheck gets sent to maryland. i am registered to vote in maryland. all my utility bills go to maryland. i pay maryland property tax. yet for some reason, arlington county virginia wants me to register my car there and pay virginia state property tax on it. why? because i like to visit my fiance who lives in arlington and i occassionally stay overnight. i received a letter (addressed to me at my house in maryland no less) stating that according to 14.2-69 of the arlington county code, all vehicle parked or garaged in arlington county register within 60 days. to be more precise,

14.2-69 Persons required to apply for and procure motor vehicle license; exceptions to application of article. (a) Every person owning a motor vehicle, trailer, or semi-trailer, with situs in Arlington County as defined by the Code of Virginia, Section 46.2-754, as ammended, shall make the application for and procure a county motor vehicle license tag within thirty (30) days of acquiring situs within the county or within thiry (30) days of purchasing a vehicle with situs in the county.

at this point, if you bothered reading that, you are probably wondering what the hell "situs" means. well according to the code of virginia, section 46.2-754, it means:

The situs for the imposition of the license requirement under the ordinance shall be the locality in which the vehicle is normally garaged, stored, or parked. If it cannot be determined where it is normally garaged, stored, or parked, the situs shall be the domicile of its owner.

the fee for registering in virginia is only $24, which is not that bad, and to be honest, i would probably pay it just to avoid the hassle. the catch is, when you register to get the county decal, you are suddenly subject to the virginia state property tax, which is assessed yearly based on the value of your car, which for me could be a couple hundred dollars a year. now aside from it being somewhat dubious of virginia to try and collect state property tax on a non-resident, the definition of situs is based entirely on the word "normally".

who decides what "normally" means? more than 50% of the time? more than 75% of the time? does my situation qualify as normally? my car spends at least 9 hours a day on the way to, or parked at work in DC. it spends probably a good week out of any given month parked at the airport in baltimore. and it spends probably one or two days a week plus just about every weekend at my house in laurel. what if normally means more than 50% of the time, do i only have to pay 50% of the property tax? you bet your ass it doesn't. what if i lived in another state in which i was already paying property tax on my car? do i have to pay it twice?

i suspect in the end, i'll just pay up because it'll cost a hell of a lot more to fight it than it will to just pay it (you might notice this is the same tactic used by the RIAA to sue 12 year old girls), unless someone knows a lawyer that has a bunch of spare time, loves to work pro bono and enjoys sticking it to the man?