Why so many Texas plates?
I feel like I've lost my mind. Why is it when I'm driving down the road that I see Texas plates every day? Are we the favorite vacation spot for Texans?
Posted Dec 8, 2023, 2:41 PM UTC
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Texas is the number 2 state of military enlistments. There are over 35,000 military members in Maryland. Not too mention DC, PA and Delaware.
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Not to mention the number of military people who change their permanent address to Texas once they're stationed there since there's no state income tax.
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They just get you with property taxes instead.
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Which the military guys won’t have generally
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Not true. Our property taxes in Texas are crazy high (I pay about $14,000 a year here). Even though my husband is retired military, there's no exemption on the property taxes (for military) unless you're a disabled veteran. We get homestead exemption but nothing for being active duty or a veteran.
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Still better than Maryland property tax, as somebody who's owned houses in both states. The tax burden here is crazy
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In Baltimore City, sure, but from what I understand the surrounding counties are MUCH lower.
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Wouldn’t make a difference. Most states are state income tax exempt for military.
We keep our Texas plates because we often move every two years and it’s easier to just renew online for $75.
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Likely military, are you near FT. Meade, APG or any of the smaller sites scattered through the state?
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Noticed that lately also.
Maybe people are tired of Texas and are moving back?
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This is my situation
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I could be totally wrong on this so please correct me, but I thought military folks can kind of "choose" which state they pay taxes in, and Texas has no income tax. (They have high property taxes and tons of toll roads, but of course neither apply to folks stationed in MD.)
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Active duty aren’t required to update all their legal documents like car registration and drivers liscenses every time they get posted somewhere new, so they can’t just pick to be from Texas, but once stationed there they can get everything changed over to TX and leave it there as they move around.
You’re correct about the tax motivation for doing this
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Ah that's for that clarification. It's been a while since I remember someone telling me that.
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Texas, New Jersey, Virginia... nobody from any of these places can stay there.
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I once saw a pickup truck in Annapolis with all these Texas stickers with one saying “secede”…. But with an MD license plate. Now I can somewhat understand that if you had a Texas plate, but come on man, you live in fucking Maryland now.
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I moved from Texas but still want them to secede. The rest of the country would be better off.
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I also moved here from Texas and I would never wish that on the friends and family I left behind…
Keep in mind there’s something like 8 million Texans actively voting against all the BS Texas does, those people don’t deserve to be abandoned.
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Should be seceded back to Mexico if we're being honest...
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“Sorry about the Alamo, we were wrong. Xoxo, no takebacks. 😘”
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That would be hilarious. You would see a big movement of working class Texans to Mexico for the cheaper rent.
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I was curious about the whole seceding, Texan here living in MD, thing and looked into it a few years ago because they were whining and threatening it. TX can't actually leave the US. What they can do is chop their ass up into a few other states though. So we'd just end up with more states. But it would be interesting if they just decided to go nuclear and leave regardless with the bases and stuff there.
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federal government wouldn't allow it, if they tried to secede they'd instantly take all the federal military shit outta that place and texas would be fucked
they think they can do stuff with the texas state army but that shit would be stomped out in less than a week if it came down to it
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Texans get too cocky for their own fucking good and I have really never understood it. They need a huge reality check.
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Are they permanent or temp? I lived in TX for like 8 months and was told that the temp tags were a common hustle people would run where they would fake the temp tags, use the car for whatever, and either swap the temp one for another fake temp one or just never register it.
If they're real then idk...
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All the ones I've seen have been permanent plates
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Texas and Florida must have a monopoly on car rentals.
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I know this is a big reason for many Florida plates, I forget if That is also a big factor for Texas.
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Because Texas is a hot, sticky political and social mess.
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Florida would like a word.
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From Texas myself. Texas wasn't that bad pre-MAGA. Florida has always been a giant swamp.
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But now texass wants to out crazy floriduh, and floriduh keeps trying to out crazy texass
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Not of a fan of there either
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Unless that word is "gay". Florida doesn't want that word.
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Alabama entered the chat.
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Alabama entered the chat...
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At my job we’ve recently hired three people (that I know of) who came from Texas
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Probably military.
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Many reasons to flee Texas these days.
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I’ve heard that there are a lot of workers who will come up from Texas for construction jobs. I have definitely seen a massive influx of Texas plates. At first I assumed it was some sort of way of skirting laws (like getting Virginia plates to avoid Maryland insurance requirements), but it seems like they may be legitimately here to work.
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I know for me. I wanted to have rights over my body, a place that is open minded. Maryland is more affordable than some of the other blue states.
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Welcome to the crab state!
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For me in Bethesda its Florida, I notice a bunch each day
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Naval station to naval station (likely Pensacola)
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People from Texas will keep that Texas plate and Texas residency until they die. I’m convinced of it.
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I mean, I am for now until my spouse (active duty) retires and we decide on our forever home/state situation.
It isn't a Texas pride thing for me lol. Just easier to keep my residency for now.
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Can't blame them
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I was a Texan that moved to Maryland because of the military. I stayed for 10 years and ultimately wound up reregistering/insuring, all of that but Texas vehicle registration is $75 a year, it takes 2 minutes to get the $7 inspection to qualify for the registration and you're done. No emissions testing. It is just so much easier to renew your Texas registration.
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Most likely military if they’re hard plate. Military members don’t have to change their vehicle registration or driver’s license when they stationed in a different state.
If they’re temp tags then they are fake and the car is unregistered and uninsured.
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Healthcare refugees fleeing Ken Paxton
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Could be military. Some states let you register your vehicle there even after you've left the state and usually people do it because it saves money.
This, Texas folks make up a decent chunk of the military. About 20% of plates I see on base are texas
They aren’t FROM Texas necessarily. They were stationed there at some point. Military folk are allowed to keep state residency when they rotate, their choice. Many choose to take and then keep Texas or Delaware residency the moment they get the chance for tax reasons.
that's me, I'm one of them, I'm not FROM Texas but they stationed me in the state armpit El Paso long enough I had to change cars and license
I think it's the same in DC... I'm surprised you got crap about it. I've never been pulled over with my DC plates. Are you a minority?
Don’t forget Florida!
Yep. Renewing our FL plates is waaaay cheaper than getting new ones!
I kept Texas residency for a decade bc of no state income taxes. It was a nice little boost given how low pay is in the military (on the enlisted side)
I can't say I blame them. Getting a car inspected and registered in Maryland is stupidly expensive.
No it’s not.
My inspection for my Subaru was $120, and I pay $120 every two years to renew my registration.
In Charlotte, I paid for a yearly inspection ($30 or $40 I think), and yearly taxes of $600. It’s significantly cheaper to own and register a car in Maryland than most southern states.
Hard disagree.
Titling and registering an out of state vehicle in Maryland costs 6% of the value of the vehicle. Credit is given for taxes already paid on other states, and for military in some cases.
A friend tells the story of nearly getting thrown out of the MVA by a state trooper when he just moved to Maryland- "But I ALREADY OWN THE CAR- WHY AM I PAYING SALES TAX??"
It's one-time as opposed to an annual assessment, but it's a significant expense if you're moving to MD with a newer vehicle.
https://mva.maryland.gov/vehicles/Pages/registration/new-to-maryland.aspx
100% this! Paying 6% sales tax on a vehicle that you own is total shit.
Yeah this was very annoying when I moved to MD, got zero credit for my expensive California sales taxes paid on a vehicle I owned.
Fair point - it can be expensive if you move from a state with a lower sales tax (for reference - if you moved from SC, they have an extremely low sales tax on vehicles).
For the context of this discussion, it would not be expensive if you moved from Texas, since their sales tax is the same, or very close, to the sales tax in Maryland.
The inspection guy came up with a bunch of BS things I had to do for my registration. Claimed my steering wheel was too slippery. Said my after market upgraded rear view mirrors were not MD complaint and forced me to downgrade, and a bunch of other BS.
Yeah you got ripped off
Sounds like they were trying to get money out of you to fix those things.
You can always go to another inspection guy?
I'd have taken the car somewhere else.
Yup - Maryland’s inspection laws easily allow for conflicts of interest - since the inspection stations can also repair your car, there’s a financial incentive for them to make up something that’s wrong with your car.
I used to live in Florida and it was significantly cheaper.
Moving to and registering your car in Florida is the exact same as Maryland - 6% tax when moving to the state minus any taxes you’ve already paid.
My last inspection in TX was around $16, and my registration was $77. They let you renew online, with the stipulation that it be inspected within 3 days of returning to TX.
Texas is worse though, they treat a car like a house and you keep paying taxes on it
Texas is worse though, they treat a car like a house and you keep paying taxes on it
You are correct, but the states don’t have a say in it. Active military members have the choice to keep their registration in their state of residency.
“Residency” as defined by: any place you’ve lived in and have “no intention of leaving.”
“No invention of leaving” as defined by (in a military sense): not having follow on orders out of state.
So yeah, you’ll see a lot of Texas and Florida license plates around military bases because those states don’t have income tax.
Source: military member that has Florida plates for 10+ years until recently
That's exactly what I did. I never understood why military members would keep their residency in California or Maryland when you have this huge income tax avoidance advantage, and its completely legal.
So, you can live in MD for years and keep the registration in TX? I bet they have lower registration costs.
Only if the car is registered in an active duty military members name (actually, spouses might count now too)
Not military, and it's only $77/yr
Military is likely the big one. Some of it is transitional or new government or contractors. The other could just be people passing through. I-95 is the main north-south corridor on this side of the country.