The latest Rajaah Debacle:
I got a notice at the beginning of the year that the department of transportation is blocking me from renewing my driver's license (at the end of April) until I take care of unpaid tolls. I looked into it and found that I have a few unpaid toll invoices, some from last year, but mainly from the car I had before the car I had before the one I have now (i.e. from 2019). Here I thought I sorted everything before I traded that car in. Evidently not, and I think I accrued some tolls after I traded it in, as well, as in the next person to drive it accrued more tolls. I think I paid whatever toll invoices I had for it and checked before I traded the car in to make sure there was nothing else.
Long story short, the unpaid tolls from two cars ago accumulated some ridiculous late fees over time (it appears that they just continually double the principal that you owe, as a late fee, what the fuck). There was one toll that was $8 and is now $490, for example. Altogether, between that car and my other missed toll invoices, I owe somewhere between $2500 and $5000 (they can't even tell me what the full amount is because a lot of it was sent to collections, which also has to be resolved in order to renew my license). I don't exactly have $5000 laying around.
So obviously I went and filed an appeal as soon as I got this notice. They said it would take up to 90 days to get a judgment, which meant end of March. License is up for renewal at the end of April. So I filed the appeal asking for a full wipe of tolls (given that they seem to be all over the place) or a payment plan to be set up where they unblock my license in the meantime.
I submitted doctor's letters asking for a medical hardship exemption, due to my various injuries and surgeries in the past. Thought I had a pretty air-tight case for getting at least a large fraction of it dismissed (not sure about the stuff they sent to collections though). The doctor's letters also said that I need to be able to drive to do my job and take care of my family (elderly mom who I can't go run errands for or even go see at all without a car...I suppose I could take taxis, but it's hard to afford rides when you no longer have a job). Basically "you'll severely mess up this guy's life and his ability to take care of his family if you block his license renewal, over tolls that are mostly for a car he hasn't had since 2019".
Fast forward to last week, I finally get a judgment letter from the department of transportation, and they say that they're rejecting my medical appeal because my current E-Z Pass account is $4 in the negative. "Bring it current and re-submit appeal and wait 90 days". That's right, they're rejecting a medical hardship with supporting doctor's letters saying "hey you'll ruin this guy's life, please don't" over FOUR DOLLARS. E-Z Pass goes negative sometimes, it's what it does. I drop a hundo in it every month and that keeps it running. I think they caught me during the only few days last month where the balance wasn't positive, because I dropped a hundo in it as soon as I saw that it was negative. I think it might have only been negative for like three days. By the time I got this idiotic letter, the balance was already renewed because I'd done it days earlier. An actual human being would have been able to see all of this and wave it away, but we don't have actual human beings at the department of transportation. Actually, when I went there today, the woman I talked to literally went "is this a joke?" when she read the rejection letter, and said she was taking it to her supervisor on Monday morning to try and get me some help. I expect nothing to come of that though.
I've been advised to go to another state and get a license there and just leave this state to figure this out for a few more months while I get back to my life. Eventually they will hopefully forgive the tolls so I can forget about it, or set me up on a payment plan, that would be fine too. In the meantime I need my license to be intact. Problem is that other states require you to be a resident in order to go to the DMV and get a license, as far as I know. And a lot of states, mostly blue states, have "reciprocity" laws to block you from renewing a license if you owe money to another state. I'd have to go out pretty far to get away from all of the reciprocity states around here.
I need to find a state that will just let me walk in and go "hey, I just moved here, need to renew my license" without any proof of residency. Don't think that exists though. I could try to get one of my relatives (all in Louisiana) to "rent me a room" and sign a lease or something to that effect. That would be a lot of trouble, cost me quite a bit, and eat up a week that I can't spare. So I'll take any ideas.
A friend in the military advised me to go to North Carolina and stay at an "Extended Stay" motel near a military base, which contractors use all the time when they're working with the military and can't actually stay on the base. Those count as a "permanent legal residence" for the purposes of going to the DMV and getting a state license, apparently. That seems too good to be true, but if I can go to NC and get an Extended Stay motel (has to be at least a week, apparently?) I can then go to the DMV there and use that as my legal residence when getting a license.
Once I have an NC driver's license I hopefully never have to deal with this state ever again. What state, you ask? You have 3 guesses, and I guarantee you won't need more than 3.
I was willing to work with them on a payment plan or whatever else, but after that $4 "pay this and re-submit appeal" horseshit I'd be happy to just ignore their tolls for the rest of time and just renew my NC license by mail every few years.
I don't know how any of this bureaucratic bullshit works, so forgive me if I get any obvious things wrong here.
