VICKSBURG — During the campaigns, scant mention was made of the previous gubernatorial campaigns of a Jackson attorney by the name of John Arthur Eaves Sr. Many may not remember much about the elder Eaves, but anyone in the state for more than 20 years surely remembers his theme: The pledge of a $10 car tag.
Although it didn't get him elected, Eaves hit on a nerve: Mississippians, especially in that era, literally dreaded going to the courthouse to find out how much their vehicle taxes would be.
The problem for consumers was that the tag tax was based on a 10-year depreciation of the full cost of a vehicle plus a privilege fee and other add-ons. It wasn't so much that city, county and state lawmakers were raising tax rates. The surge to tags costing $1,000 or more for a basic sedan corresponded to the surge in car prices.
Anyway, sensing the outrage, the Legislature enacted a tax credit that cut the price of tags and renewals by about a third. Note that the Legislature did not reduce the actual tax. It remained the same. In one of the more self-righteous acts in state history, enacting the credit was accompanied by a decree stating that all tax bills must show in bold print the actual amount of the “legislative tax credit,” making it appear to be a gift or something from the wise and generous elected officials who populate the Capitol.
Note as well that when the Legislature enacted the credit, it also increased the sales tax on vehicles from 3 percent to 5 percent. It was a “revenue neutral” change for the state, but the sting of taxation was shifted from the courthouse to the dealership.
A corresponding development was the advent of the “vanity tag.” That's what people call them. Maybe it's too vain for the state to accept that name. The State Tax Commission calls them “personalized tags.” Initially, the deal was that people could order custom tags, using numbers and letters, such as IMACUTIE or NO1GRANNY.
Later, colleges, charities, state agencies and other interest groups saw an opportunity and jumped in, too.
Today, there are about 150 different styles of what are known as “specialty tags” in Mississippi, with more applicants every year.
Admittedly, there's limited demand for some, such as Ex-Governor, and Ex-Lieutenant Governor. It's not clear that “Petal School District” would be a biggie, either.
Others, however, are all the rage. All public and private colleges have tags, and the cause of wildlife conservation has - count 'em - nine offerings. They are bass, butterfly, deer, eagle, hummingbird, mallard, rabbit, turkey and speckled trout. Sadly, and perhaps it's an oversight, there is no catfish tag in Mississippi, nor one for raccoons, possums or armadillos. For people wishing to avoid being species-specific, there is the generic “I Love Animals” tag.
Clearly, there's money to be made by having a designated tag. The added fees range from $31 for most to $51. By decree, $1 of every special license fee, regardless of the cause, is to go to the Mississippi Burn Center. But Mississippi no longer has a burn center. Wonder where that money goes.
There are no football or baseball tags, as such, but one of the newer tags allows NASCAR fans to display their affection. Initially, almost 30,000 people signed up for the NASCAR tags.
If someone had the time and the energy, there's no end to what could be discerned by studying state-to-state variations in tag purchases. For instance, what does it say about Mississippi that there are more than 43,000 tags supporting higher education institutions and more than 46,000 supporting wildlife. Anything to be made of the fact that Mississippi licenses 327 taxis and 372 hearses?
There's all kinds of interesting stuff in the statistics the Tax Commission posts on the Internet. For instance, we have one lieutenant governor and there's one lieutenant governor tag. But we also have one governor and two U.S. senators, and there are three governor and four senator tags. As for state lawmakers, the vast majority of them don't pay the extra fees for the special tags they entitled themselves to buy. There's bound to be a message of some sort in that.
