Unfettered Letters

DMV experience

I read with amusement the letter (10/16) complaining about Missouri’s motor vehicle registration department.

What do you expect from an office where you have no choice about going, they don’t have to please the public, they have no competition, and you will accept any abuse they give you?

It is not the government’s job to please the taxpayer. It is its job to separate you from as much of your wealth as possible.

If you do not give it to them in a timely manner, they get more in the form of penalties. They don’t want your excuses.

Jerry Jackson
Liberty

License plate stickers

We continue to be robbed of our license plate renewal stickers.

In her letter to The Star (11/14), Delores Mair explained how she is getting tired of having hers stolen.

The state of Missouri charges up to $12 replace the stickers. This is not a fair expense that we are forced to pay because the state has designed proof of renewal that invites theft.

If Missouri does not have the wherewithal to provide a license that we pay for that that thieves cannot profit from, then it should not charge us for replacement stickers.

It seems that Gov. Matt Blunt’s main concern is giving the license offices to his friends, who stand to make thousands of dollars from the operation. It is time to inform him that we are not at all happy with this license sticker requirement and request changes — now!

Ken Crabtree
Kansas City

Stolen license stickers

How many car owners are sick and tired of having their license stickers stolen? I certainly am.

I had taken preventative measures to deter theft, such as scoring the stickers with a razor blade. However, they were stolen (again) along with hubcaps.

The profiteers who benefit from these thefts are, of course, the thieves and the state, which charges up to $12 to to replace the stickers. (Quite a nice profit to replace two one-inch square paper stickers).

The losers obviously are the tax-paying suckers — I mean, citizens.

I have decided that sticking these stickers to the plates is an open invitation to thieves. Therefore, in order to stem skullduggery, I suggest a simple system to stamp our sticker stealers.

I will no longer attach the replacement stickers to my license plates. Instead I will keep them on my person or place them in a secure spot in my vehicle. If I am subsequently stopped I will simply show the officer(s) the stickers and explain my strategy. I think they will sympathize.

Delores Mair
Kansas City

License tag renewal

There is good news and bad news in this tale of renewing my Missouri license tag.

Someone pulled my year tag off, and so I had to get a new one. I couldn’t find my paid tax receipt, so had to get a new one from the county.

The good news is that the Jackson County Collections Department was courteous and efficient in getting me a paid tax receipt. The bad news was going to the state office building to get the replacement tag.

The lines were long. Most people ahead of me said they had tried to renew online and couldn’t. There were only two people doing renewals. They are nice when you finally get to them. Sometimes only one is available.

If Gov. Matt Blunt thinks this was a good idea and is an example of efficient government, he should come to Kansas City, stand in line himself and see what an awful experience it is.

I used to go to AAA and it took 10 minutes. This experience took two hours.

Citizens shouldn’t be treated this way, and they shouldn’t stand for it any longer.

To top it all off, when I finally got to my car, it had been ticketed for an expired tag!

David Oliver
Kansas City

Safer license stickers

Stickers indicating our cars have passed inspection go inside our windshields. Why not put self-stick glue on the front of the same kind of stickers we must now put on our license plates, then allow us to display them from inside our windshields?

Criminals who like to steal these stickers would not be able to get their hands on them. And I would not be forced to spend money on a license plate cover.

Deborah D. Love
Kansas City