By Johanna Kaiser, Communications & Development Associate

Imagine living in an automotive utopia where all cars are as pristine as they were the day they are driven off the lot. Outside, each car has a nearly perfect paint job. Inside, the coffee stains are barely noticeable and the seams aren’t frayed. Even better, everything works as it should. We all know this is far from reality, but when Rhode Island car owners receive their tax bills they are told it is.

According to the state of Rhode Island, each of the approximately 900,000 cars registered within the state meets the standards of the highest possible book value (the “clean retail value”) suggested by the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA). As a result, almost every car owned by a Rhode Island resident, whether it is one year old or seventeen years old, is treated for tax purposes as if it were almost “like new.”

The ACLU of Rhode Island has long called on the R.I. Vehicle Value Commission to stop using this unrealistic vehicle valuation to determine car taxes and to also adopt a meaningful appeals process for Rhode Island car owners. Today, the ACLU again testified before the Commission urging its members to make these necessary changes.

Not only do Rhode Island drivers face heavy taxes that do not match the true value of their vehicles, they are also denied any meaningful appeal process to have their vehicles recognized fairly. The Commission’s consideration of appeals of its “presumptive value” consists solely of checking for clerical errors, allowing adjustments to be made only when an incorrect NADA car value was inadvertently imposed, not when the taxpayer challenges the NADA figure itself based on, for example, local selling conditions.

In written testimony delivered to the Commission, the ACLU said: “Such cold efficiency, which essentially rewrites the word “presumptive” out of the statute, is a disservice to the taxpayers and to basic principles of due process.” (Full testimony)

The ACLU called on the Commission to consider using local retail sales prices to set vehicle values, break down car models into categories by years, or consider other factors. The testimony continued: “[W]e leave it to the Commission members and others to suggest alternative methods of establishing a “presumptive value” for motor vehicles; all that we can say is that something more meaningful than the current procedure is essential in order to add some fairness to the methodology.” The ACLU also called on the Commission to establish a meaningful appeals process.