Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, I am writing to you to express my frustration with the Georgia auto registration costs. I’m not sure if you receive many complaints, but I will say, it’s one heckuva birthday present.

I just paid our state over $660 in one fell swoop today to register two cars. That’s almost half my monthly mortgage. It’s a month of day care.

In the state of New York, fees are well below $100 for a two-year renewal. In Delaware, it’s less than $40 annually.

Roads are paved all the same at the cost; why are Georgians paying such an outlandish rate, especially during these times? If fees were consistent, I’d have no argument. But, obviously, they aren’t, and are quite unfair to hard working Georgia residents.

Doesn’t that also discourage new car buying? After this kind of fee levy, it makes one want to purchase a used car. That doesn’t help anyone in the bigger picture, economically or environmentally.

At some point, there has to be someone to say, this simply isn’t right.

As a resident of this state, $660 should get me value-added I’m not getting elsewhere. When I sit in Atlanta traffic, I’m not seeing the value-added. One could argue it goes to road maintenance. Seems these other states are able to get by without going out of their way to truly financially hurt residents like Georgia.

Thank you. I hope this letter somehow makes a difference somewhere, somehow.

James Lewchuk

Fayetteville, Ga.

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