License plate madness

It looks like New York State is going to abandon an ill-conceived plan to raise money by increasing the charge for license plates. This was objectionable not so much for the increase in the plate charge itself but because the state was going require everyone to replace their plates even when there was nothing wrong with their old plates. This is an all too common form of government stupidity. The cost to the residents of the state in terms of additional expense and hassle to get their plates switched would far exceed the plate fee itself. And some of the additional fee revenue would be offset by the expense to the state to manufacture and distribute the new plates. All in all a very inefficient way for the state to raise money. Much more efficient would be to just raise the income tax rates a little which would involve minimal additional costs. But of course if the state routinely paid attention to efficiency they might not need more money.