alucard0822
For great Justice
Yup, living in MD most of my life, I heard how much better life in PA is, moved in 08 and found it has been better than I ever could have expected. Cost of living, and housing costs are much lower, actual property and income taxes are really low, it's the school tax that brings the cost up to around the same overall property tax a comparable home in MD would pay(with a higher appraised value). Local taxes and utilities vary wildly by area, be sure to check them with your realtor. In my area of Windsor, trash/sewer/water costs $250+ quarterly, a buddy in neighboring Red Lion pays $50 quarterly for the same, slightly higher property tax, about the same school tax, his house is a lot bigger. LTCF is easy, get a DL, fill out a 1 page form, mail it in with a $25 check, get a call and go pick it up 2 days later, that's it. There are a ton of private ranges around, most are somewhat easy to join, and cost under $100 a year to shoot any time you want.
My MVA nightmare seems to be well known. Basically I had 2 days of MD/PA insurance overlap to make sure I could get tags and licensing done with insurance in both states while being 100% legal, and under the advisement of USAA(my insurance co). MD MVA said I never turned in tags, said their receipt proving I turned in the tags meant nothing, said my MD license was suspended, they didn't notify me till a couple months and couple grand worth of fines were racked up. Took a year of fighting, my insurance co sent form after form, and ended up basically taking MVA to court over it before it was dropped, and I haven't heard anything in the last 4 years. I know a few others who got hit with MVA insurance compliance fines, some paid, some kept getting letters and just trashed them(so far no arrests or collection agencies AFAIK), one other fought successfully like me.
I also found a lot of differences in what is utility/locality's responsibility and what is the homeowner. If the sidewalk needs to be repaired, it is on me to repair it, not the borough or county, and I have to repair it in accordance with their expensive guidelines, so basically take care of your sidewalk, it might cost you thousands if it is damaged and someone complains. Our water meter is actually at the far end of our neighbors property in a pit with his meter also. had a water pipe bust underground, I had to dig it up and replace it, would have had to pay to move the curb stop on my property too, but I left it as-is, and just ran a 2" pipe to sleeve the utility pipe, had to pay for all the water that leaked out too, they get water to the meter, wherever it is, after that it's yours, in MD meters are on the house, the utility will put it there, and the utility is responsible for getting water to it, unless it leaks into your house after the meter, you don't get charged for leaking water. Went to get a permit to put up a fence, basically got laughed at, and took the lady in the borough office 2 days to find the permit forms, and figure out exactly how to handle permits(said she hadn't filled one out in 10 years). Even though it is required, nobody ever gets on, and it isn't enforced unless you are doing something major, presumable like adding a 2nd story on your house.
Also pretty much got scammed by a NJ electric company. Lots of Dems and Republicans alike pushed hard for electric de-regulation, but it's kind of a cluster, hundreds of providers trying to get you to sign up with them, some are good, some bad, never had a problem with met-Ed, our original "default" provider, and never wanted to change. Got a call from ITC out of NJ, said they represented Met-Ed, and were handling the billing, verified my basic info(they read it to me), and that was a little over a year ago, never said they were taking over Electric, never said they were a separate company, said the electric cost was fixed, and never noticed a difference. That is till February's bill, 2X higher than normal, the rate went from .08c per kW to .15c per kW, I called, found the company lied, Met-ed was forced by law to hand over customer info to 3rd party companies, and had nothing to do with the company billing me, and to top it off, Met-Ed never raised their prices, if I didn't get bamboozled, I would still be paying .08c per kW. The company ITC basically said nothing other than "pay up, or we turn it off" being they are under a pending investigation and numerous lawsuits for this, pretty much trying to collect as much as they can till they get smacked. Managed to switch my electric back to Met-ed, and lock the account, so it couldn't be changed without my permission and I "opted out" of sharing my info. Got the last ITC bill, now 3X higher at .25 per kW, but that is the last of it, and next bill should be right. Turns out a lot of small electric suppliers have done/are doing this, unadvertised "introductory" fixed rates, swapping people without proper paperwork or notification, fraud, lying to customers, impersonating other electric companies, and so on, tens of thousands of people got scammed, and the state AG's office is going after them hard, which I'm involved with, all in all losing $400 through a quasi-legal scam isn't the end of the world, and hopefully I get some back once the class-action settlements start rolling in.
My MVA nightmare seems to be well known. Basically I had 2 days of MD/PA insurance overlap to make sure I could get tags and licensing done with insurance in both states while being 100% legal, and under the advisement of USAA(my insurance co). MD MVA said I never turned in tags, said their receipt proving I turned in the tags meant nothing, said my MD license was suspended, they didn't notify me till a couple months and couple grand worth of fines were racked up. Took a year of fighting, my insurance co sent form after form, and ended up basically taking MVA to court over it before it was dropped, and I haven't heard anything in the last 4 years. I know a few others who got hit with MVA insurance compliance fines, some paid, some kept getting letters and just trashed them(so far no arrests or collection agencies AFAIK), one other fought successfully like me.
I also found a lot of differences in what is utility/locality's responsibility and what is the homeowner. If the sidewalk needs to be repaired, it is on me to repair it, not the borough or county, and I have to repair it in accordance with their expensive guidelines, so basically take care of your sidewalk, it might cost you thousands if it is damaged and someone complains. Our water meter is actually at the far end of our neighbors property in a pit with his meter also. had a water pipe bust underground, I had to dig it up and replace it, would have had to pay to move the curb stop on my property too, but I left it as-is, and just ran a 2" pipe to sleeve the utility pipe, had to pay for all the water that leaked out too, they get water to the meter, wherever it is, after that it's yours, in MD meters are on the house, the utility will put it there, and the utility is responsible for getting water to it, unless it leaks into your house after the meter, you don't get charged for leaking water. Went to get a permit to put up a fence, basically got laughed at, and took the lady in the borough office 2 days to find the permit forms, and figure out exactly how to handle permits(said she hadn't filled one out in 10 years). Even though it is required, nobody ever gets on, and it isn't enforced unless you are doing something major, presumable like adding a 2nd story on your house.
Also pretty much got scammed by a NJ electric company. Lots of Dems and Republicans alike pushed hard for electric de-regulation, but it's kind of a cluster, hundreds of providers trying to get you to sign up with them, some are good, some bad, never had a problem with met-Ed, our original "default" provider, and never wanted to change. Got a call from ITC out of NJ, said they represented Met-Ed, and were handling the billing, verified my basic info(they read it to me), and that was a little over a year ago, never said they were taking over Electric, never said they were a separate company, said the electric cost was fixed, and never noticed a difference. That is till February's bill, 2X higher than normal, the rate went from .08c per kW to .15c per kW, I called, found the company lied, Met-ed was forced by law to hand over customer info to 3rd party companies, and had nothing to do with the company billing me, and to top it off, Met-Ed never raised their prices, if I didn't get bamboozled, I would still be paying .08c per kW. The company ITC basically said nothing other than "pay up, or we turn it off" being they are under a pending investigation and numerous lawsuits for this, pretty much trying to collect as much as they can till they get smacked. Managed to switch my electric back to Met-ed, and lock the account, so it couldn't be changed without my permission and I "opted out" of sharing my info. Got the last ITC bill, now 3X higher at .25 per kW, but that is the last of it, and next bill should be right. Turns out a lot of small electric suppliers have done/are doing this, unadvertised "introductory" fixed rates, swapping people without proper paperwork or notification, fraud, lying to customers, impersonating other electric companies, and so on, tens of thousands of people got scammed, and the state AG's office is going after them hard, which I'm involved with, all in all losing $400 through a quasi-legal scam isn't the end of the world, and hopefully I get some back once the class-action settlements start rolling in.
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That is part of why PA gun rights are as good as they are, the entire community bands together and opposes ANY infringement, so they don't get away with much. The Harrisburg rallies are also pretty cool, there is something to be said about hundreds showing up open carrying in front of the Capitol, to show, and preserve the fact that we can. I haven't OCed much, I always CC, but OC in addition from time to time depending on what I am doing, 99% of the time people don't notice or care, 1% has been positive, including interacting with police, never a negative, the mindset is COMPLETELY different than MD.
, PA insurance, PA tags/registration, PA inspection, all within about a month. You of course can't get PA tags without PA insurance, and can't cancel your MD tags before you cancel MD insurance. I paid for a few days overlap before USAA transferred my policy to stay legal(despite the resulting fiasco described above), some get a 2nd policy with overlap, some break the law and get away with it. You can go to Runkles tag&title, they handle advice and paperwork for a fee, or your insurance companies can help keep you legal, and tell you how to make the switch at state DMV and DL centers.
