Legislative watchdog C.B Forgotston expects Gov. Bobby Jindal to veto a bill that repeals the fee increase on driver’s licenses, which the Jindal administration ordered earlier this year.
Forgotston correctly asserts that this fee is tantamount to a tax, and he urges everyone to support the repeal and oppose a veto. As a stalwart opponent of taxes and red tape, Forgotston has crusaded against the new driver’s license fees on his blog (while hardly mentioning the oil spill). Some argue that Jindal “only” increased license fees by $15 a pop, but Forgotston says that adds up to a $13 million annual tax on Louisianans, proving that Jindal’s anti-tax rhetoric is merely empty pablum.
Though I disagree with Forgotston that taxes and red tape are Louisiana’s biggest problems, and while I’d love to needle Bobby “the Next Ronald Reagan” Jindal about his new taxes, I want to offer both of them a creative solution: a third way that will increase revenue without increasing taxes.
First, Jindal should holster his veto pen and let the fee get repealed. Next, he should work with the Legislature to create a special Saints driver’s license to go along with the Saints license plates that are expected to raise a tidy sum for the state. The Saints driver’s licenses would cost, say, $40 more than the regular ones. Instead of having a blank background for your mug, the clerk would pull down a special Saints wallpaper to frame your face. It could have a black-and-gold fleur de lis background sprinkled with “Who dats.”
No doubt, Saints fans would pay extra for this flair on their licenses. If you’re a true fan, how can you get the Who Dat plate without the matching Who Dat license? Fans would wear their Saints jerseys when they renew, and you know they’d be smiling when the photo snaps. I could see fans coordinating their renewals, arriving en masse, and perhaps trying to tailgate in the DMV parking lot. A boring bureaucratic exercise becomes fun, and the state gets more revenue. For Saints fans, it would be a rare football “fix” during the summer. Everyone wins.
Why not this fun option, rather than a mandatory tax?