SAN DIEGO—
Southern California drivers are feeling the pinch once again as they not only have to deal with higher gas prices, but now higher car registration fees.If you haven't paid your car registration fees, get ready to pay close to double what you paid last year. Many San Diegans decided to beat the clock on the deadline.
'I knew about the May 19 fee increases, so I came a little bit early because of the economy and everything else...tried to save a buck," said new resident Jon Pitkanen.
John just moved here from Arizona a few weeks ago. He paid $158 for his registration, and was expecting to pay more.
"I was expecting to pay around $600 or something, but because I got here I was actually really, really happy," he said.
John was "lucky," but if you plan on buying a car or you haven't paid your car registration fees yet, that luck just ran out. Lawmakers earlier passed the increased car registration fees as a way to balance the budget, and hopefully bring in more money for California. But it's something San Diegans say wasn't the smart thing to do.
"It was already expensive already for me when I paid it in February, it was almost 200 dollars," said resident Timothy Grimes.
Some economists echo the same thing.
"We should've been offering not a tax increase on auto registrations, but a tax decrease to spur additional demand," said Erik Bruvold, president of the National University System Institute For Policy Research.
He said not only will the higher car registration fees hurt Californian's pocket books, but also the dealers hoping to get their cars off the lot.
"Previous before the recession, we were selling about eight million new cars in this country a year. Now it looks like at best estimates, we're going to be down to about four million," said Bruvold.
The fee increase is set to expire in 2011. Economists say if Proposition 1A passes, it will expire in 2013.
