Lawmakers rethinking license tag rules

By Ronnie Ellis - CNHI News Service CNHI

July 9, 2010 —     FRANKFORT - According to Jimmie Lee, a state representative from Elizabethtown and an auto dealer there, he gets customers who decide which car they want because of the expiration date on the license plate.

    Lee said Tuesday he gets inquiries on cars he plans to sell for salvage and then understands — the vehicle has a plate with an expiration date still 9 or 10 months away, which means the buyer can buy one month’s insurance and then let it lapse and not have to buy insurance again for several months.

    That’s one reason some lawmakers want to change the way Kentucky issues its license tags. Right now, Kentucky is one of 12 states, which tie the tags to the vehicle — the other 38 tie it to the customer. If he buys a new car, he takes his old tag with him.

    But that causes some county clerks concern. Clerks receive fees from transfers of vehicles, fees on which they operate their offices.

    Laurel County Clerk Dean Johnson Tuesday told the Interim Joint Transportation Committee his office last year took in over $7,000 in temporary tag fees on transferred vehicles, $119,000 on title fees and $470,000 in renewal tag fees.

    Breathitt County Clerk Tony Watts said he could live with the change if the law included language requiring title transfer within 15 days of the sale. Otherwise, he said, private individuals could trade vehicles and drive them for perhaps as much as a year without paying the title transfer, simply by switching tags.

    He also asked if an owner of multiple vehicles could simply move the tag from one vehicle to another as it was in use, thereby saving taxes and fees on two.

    Committee co-chairs, Rep. Hubie Collins, D-Wittensville, the sponsor of a bill in the 2010 session, which could have issued tags to customers rather than vehicles, Sen. Ernie Harris, R-Crestwood said all those concerns could be addressed.

    Collins said it is “absolutely incorrect” that his intent was to begin taking fees from county clerks.

    “I have no intention, and I don’t think anyone in the legislature has any intention, in doing away with fees,” Collins said. “There’s no way we want to hurt the clerks in any way.”

    Not all clerks oppose the measure. Bobby Phillips, Simpson County Clerk, favors the change and said those clerks at the most recent County Clerks Association meeting voted 38-12 to support the change. Phillips said in 1984, the state issued three types of tags: truck, farm and passenger vehicle tags. He said that number is now closer to 100, including specialty or vanity tags.

    Those already follow the owner, Phillips said, and he favors a unified, consistent system, which would be easier to track and administer.

Tom Zawacki, Motor Vehicle Regulation Commissioner for the Department of Transportation, said there are two primary reasons the cabinet favors the change — a new computerized tracking system designed by 3-M which is designed for those states with plate to customer systems and the new system will make it easier for law enforcement to track citations because the tag number will stay with the violator even if the vehicle changes hands.

    Collins bill passed the 2010 House and Harris’ Senate Transportation Committee but was then sent back to committee by the full Senate where it died. Harris said he favors the bill but last minute concerns about its effects and dissatisfaction by some constituent groups killed it the last time. He asked the clerks and the cabinet to work out any problems before the legislature convenes again in January.

    “We want this solved before the session starts,” Harris said.

    Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.

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