I hope all those people who voted to accept the $0.095 tax increase per gallon of gas are happy, especially when they realize that the rejection of this unnecessary increase could have at least offset the latest Department of Transportation robbery for a Vehicle Weight Allowance.

On my Vehicle Renewal Notice this Vehicle Weight charge for my compact vehicle is $10 and represents an increase of 20 percent from prior years’ vehicle renewal charge, not to mention that every tankful of gas now costs me an average of $7.20 to cover the Federal and state gas tax that will soon be $0.60 per gallon.

We are paying too high a price to drive on ill maintained and inadequate infrastructure roads. To the credit of the Department of Licensing, they are too embarrassed to list all the fees on the Vehicle Renewal Notice applicable to renewal of your tabs. That's right, you "must" go online to see the breakdown of fees like a $9 charge for Link Light Rail (the Jobs program); Filing Fee, $3; License Service Fee, $0.75 to pay for a new license plate that you probably do not need; the NEW Vehicle Weight Fee of $10; plus the fixed $30 License Fee, thanks to the Evil Tim Eyman.

To add insult to injury, if you try to renew your tabs online to somewhat speed up the process, it’s impossible to get the DOL to mail your tabs to you unless you have changed your address; otherwise you "must" go to a sub-agent and pay yet another fee of $4 to pick up the tabs. But if you mail in your check or money order to Washington DOL, they will mail the tabs to you when they get damn good and ready. Last year this antiquated process took three weeks, which might be considered quick for a governmental agency -- they really need some help from a company like Amazon!

What DOT does not need is any more of our money until they can justify the effectiveness of their current expenditures.

Gary L Kennedy

Des Moines