Expired license tabs

I see more and more cars on Seattle streets with expired license tabs.  This has been especially true since the beginning of the pandemic -- as though motorists have concluded that if they don't use their car as often, they shouldn't have to pay to keep the license current.  But it was an increasing problem even before 2020.

Yes, I know.  I sound petty.  And if I weren't a curious observer of car licenses -- both in-state and out-of-state -- I probably wouldn't even be writing this diatribe.  But it bugs me, just as does watching my fellow citizens abuse the "honor system" for payment of light rail transit fares.

My ire was provoked this morning by a Seattle Times article announcing that police officers would no longer stop a car merely because its license bore expired tabs.  The police chief is concerned that such stops offer opportunities for "negative interactions" between the police and the stopped driver, and that the penalties for such violations fall disproportionately on those least able to pay.  

“These violations do not have a direct connection to the safety of other individuals on the roads, paths, or sidewalks,” the police chief observed.  The offender can still be ticketed for an expired license if stopped for another ticketable offense.

Now, look.  I'm all in favor of more equitable laws.  I would gladly support elimination of fares for everybody on light rail.  Rail rapid transit is a service that helps everyone, including those who drive cars on the less crowded highways which result.  It could be, and probably should be, paid for by the city and county entirely out of general funds and property taxes, rather than subsidized partly from user's fares.

Similarly, if annual auto licensing fees and taxes are unduly burdensome for those least able to pay, then they could be abolished as a source of government income.  Income must come from somewhere, of course.  In the absence of a state income tax, it would have to come from increases in the sales tax and the real property taxes (which, for rental properties, are in part passed on to renters in higher rents).

But I find it unfair and hardly conducive to respect for law that we, in effect, allow some citizens to opt out light-heartedly from paying annual auto taxes and light rail fares, while depending on the good citizenship of everyone else to pay for streets, highways, and rail service.  In effect, in the absence of any compulsion to pay taxes and fares, we who nevertheless pay these charges are in fact making a voluntary charitable contribution to the city and county.

If they were so designated, I would  -- as a good citizen with the means to pay -- still pay the taxes and fares.  But I would at least be able to write them off as charitable contributions on my federal income taxes.