The City Hall Circus and car insurance

(Newsroompanama.com) - From the Sidelines - The circus at Panama’s city hall continues,with the current ring master Rep. José Isabel Blandón now appearing as the power in front of the throne, rather than behind it.

The man who stepped out of the shadows of the National Assembly to become an unpaid advisor to Bosco Vallarino, the city’s stumbling mayor, where uneasy sits the crown, had startling news on Monday, January 3.

He announced that taxpayers will pay their annual vehicular road tax beginning March, based and not on the price they paid when they first drove it from the showroom but on the depreciated price of their car. Hallelujah.

The flaw in the initial plan was immediately pointed out by numerous Newsroom readers when the story was first carried, which makes you wonder what was going on in the heads of council members when they approved the new tax regime in December.

The initial plan trumpeted that the tax would be determined based on the value of the vehicle at the time of registration and the system would be initiated on January 1. Then Blandon, who several times had stepped forward to defend the flawed proposal, announced that it would be delayed until March.

Now he has announced that the tax specifications have been amended, after a meeting with members of the Automobile Dealers Association of Panama who presented a table with the calculations that would allow taxpayers to pay their road circulation tax based on the annual depreciation of the vehicle.

You don’t have to be a dealer to know that there is a booklet available that lists estimated values of used cars. Anyone who has ever bought or sold an older car, or taken out car insurance could have told the council members, and Sr. Blandon, that cars do not maintain their price levels, or even rise like property prices, unless of course you want to keep it under wraps for 40 or 50 years, and sell it as a valuable antique. But of course, if you spend your life driving around in official vehicles, perhaps you are deprived of elemental knowledge like that.

The Dealers proposal was accepted by the City of Panama and Bosco’s advisor stepped forward with the good news to explain that for a vehicle purchased in 2010, the owner will not pay a road tax based on the initial price but the depreciated price at the time of the plate renewal in 2011.

Blandón, reminded the general public that vehicles valued at less than $20,000 will pay a $28 tax; those valued between $20,000 and $50 000 will pay $38 and vehicles with a depreciated value of $50,000-$75,000 will pay $50.

Those valued at $75,000-$150,000 will pay $150. No word on the tax level for the Maserati being show cased by the country’s chief of police.

Rumor has it that Blandon’s unpaid role in covering for the mayor is a stepping stone to making a bid for Bosco’s seat, when he steps down or is thrown out, whichever is the sooner. With gaffs like this, it’s going to be a long hard road for the man who would  be king.

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Original Source: Newsroompanama.com

Date Retrieved: January 4, 2011.