Colorado Democrats are floating an outrageous new tax to steal more money from their citizens with a new “pet registration tax” that would place a nearly $9 annual tax on the head of every pet people own.
The “Pet Registration System” (HB24-1163) dreamed up by wacko Rep. Regina English (D, Colorado Springs) would force Coloradans to pay $8.50 every year for every animal they own.
As I mentioned, even fish. And imagine how expensive that is if you are an aquarium enthusiast with 30 or 40 or more fish!
The cash grab is not the only idiotic thing in this bill. If made into law, pet owners would also be required to identify a person as a “designated caregiver” in case the main pet owner dies. And if pet owners neglect to do so? They get hit with a $25 per pet fine per year until that “designated caregiver” is assigned.
You also realize that this is just yet another needless, burdensome tax that the legislature will continuously revisit so they can hike the fees, too, don’t you?
There is also severe financial punishment if you refuse to register your pets and the pet police find out about it.
Residents would be charged a fine of $100 per pet for owning unregistered animals.
As the bill stands right now, there is no exception for business that breed or buy and sell pets, either. So, they would also be socked with these idiotic fees.
Furthermore, this is just another layer of government that Colorado will have to pay for state employees to administer. That means more wasteful government jobs, more wasteful employee benefits, healthcare, more cars to be used for employee transportation, more office space… all the wasteful spending that goes with enlarging government offices.
Finally, let me tell you right now what this bill would do right off the top.
Tens of thousands of Colorado pet owners would throw their pets outside and abandon them, leaving hundreds of thousands of pets that don’t belong in the Colorado wilderness to fend for themselves. It’s already bad enough that too many negligent pet owners do this as it is. Abandoned cats in particular are an ecological disaster in every corner of this country.
But if tens of thousands of pet owners who are already living on marginal incomes are forced to begin paying more fees to the government just to own a dog, cat, fish, or hamster, many will simply cast their pet into the wilderness and wash their hands of them.
It will also end pet buying. Most people just won’t enter into getting a pet in the first place to avoid all this garbage.
And don’t fall for all that blubbery “oh, muh furrrrbaby” nonsense you hear from animal nuts, either. Faced with having food on their own table and having to pay exorbitant fees to own a pet, the McDonald’s bags won’t suddenly stop following people home, but the pets will no longer be there to welcome them when they get back back!
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