03/27/2024
STATE GOV - inspection sticker elimination bill passes committee
➡️BILL INFO: HB344 - Removes the requirement for motor vehicle inspection stickers
➡️DETAILS:
▪️On 3/25/2024, the House Transportation Committee approved legislation on a 6-5 vote to do away with the requirement for LA drivers to have an up to date inspection sticker on their vehicle.
▪️Rep Larry Bagley, from the Shreveport-area, says getting the sticker is an inconvenience, an unnecessary expense & does nothing to keep our roads safer. “There is no reason to do it, it costs money & it takes time out of your day to have to go it & if you get caught in violation, then you have to pay a fine,” said Bagley.
▪️Bagley testified that only 11 states and none of Louisiana's contiguous neighbors require safety inspection stickers. "I want us all to be safe, but I don't think ($10 annual) inspection stickers have one thing to do with that," Bagley said.
▪️One state lawmaker said the fine for an expired inspection sticker can be as much as $250.
▪️Bagley says vehicles are built better & law enforcement officers can pull over a vehicle they believe is not safe.
▪️The proposed law eliminates present law provisions for inspection stations & only requires commercial vehicles & student transportation vehicles have an inspection sticker.
▪️Hornbeck Representative Rodney Schamerhorn says there are several inspection stations that do not take it seriously, so why require it. “If inspection stations were doing a thorough job of inspecting the vehicles, I can go along with it, but they are not,” said Schamerhorn.
▪️If Bagley’s bill becomes law, motorists who live in EBR, WBR, Ascension, Livingston, & Iberville parishes would still need to get an $8 emissions test, because of high ozone levels in the Capital City Region under the federal U.S. Clean Air Act law.
▪️The measure will now head to House Appropriations for more discussion.
➡️COST IMPLICATIONS:
▪️The elimination of inspection vehicles would cost State Police & the Office of Motor Vehicles $14 million a year.
▪️ $188,773 is the reported average annual cost to produce inspections stickers from FY 21 to FY 23 for the Office of Motor Vehicles (OMV) associated with the.
▪️4.4 M stickers are currently issued & the proposed law will reduce the number of stickers issued by approximately 3.6 M or 82%.
▪️While the proposed law does not directly impact other expenditures, $3.5 M of the revenues collected by OMV is utilized as general operating expenses.
▪️Additionally, approximately $11 M of SGR revenues is transferred to the Office of State Police to be utilized for general operations. A reduction of approximately $14.5 M in SGR revenues may require an offsetting appropriation of SGF to maintain current activity levels or may require a significant SGR expenditure reduction within OMV or State Police.
▪️For reference, from the $8 emission test fee, MVI stations retain $6 of the $8 fee & the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) receives the remaining $2. Annually, approximately 322,000 emission control stickers are sold resulting in $640,000 of revenue for DEQ.
➡️HOW’D YOUR REP VOTE?
▪️Yea
•Bryan Fontenot, District #55
•Tehmi Chassion
•Jacob Braud District 105
•Phillip Tarver District 36
•Joy Walters District 4
•Jeff Wiley
▪️Nay
•Chad Michael Boyer
•Kellee Hennessy Dickerson
•C Travis Johnson
•Pat Moore District 17
•Tammy Phelps District 3
▪️Abstain
•Ryan Bourriaque
➡️RELATED:
▪️Bill link 👉 https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/BillInfo.aspx?i=246027
