Could Louisiana Vehicle Inspections Soon be History?
As Louisiana enters a new era with a new administration, it's going to be very interesting to see how many policies we'll see that actually get changed. Having been under a... less conservative... governor for the past 8 years, a lot of promises were made during campaigns by republicans.
Policies like eliminating the state income tax, eliminating concealed carry permits, making the state more business friendly to encourage economic growth, are just a few of the expectations voters have now for this new administration.
But if this current proposal to eliminate the state's vehicle inspection stickers passes, I'd say we are taking a small step in the right direction. Louisiana State Rep. Larry Bagley of Logansport is bringing his legislation forward to eliminate inspection stickers again.
This is the third time Bagley has brought forward this proposal, but this time it's much different. On Thursday morning, Bagley told KEEL News:
I've brought it twice before, the first 4 years I ran... neither time, I really didn't have any trouble getting the votes out to vote for it, but the problem was that the governor was not really in favor of pushing it, neither was the state police. The state police fought it both times.
When asked why the state police kept fighting the bill, Bagley said:
Well, the issue was that at that time they said that they needed that sticker because, if we see a car with the number wrong on that sticker and it's a violation, we know that there are other violations in that car.
But Bagley said the biggest issue about why they changed their opinion on the legislation was funding. When referring to the inspection sticker fees, Bagley said:
The big thing was that they said was the little bit of money that they got went straight to the state police. But now, last year when we put that tax from vaping (products) on... the state police came to me, and asked me would I bring it again. I told them I was planned to, and they said they were going to support it this time.
States that Require Annual Inspection Stickers
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Maine
- North Carolina
- New York
- New Hampshire
- Massachusetts
- Pennsylvania
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- West Virginia
States That Require Inspections Every Other Year
- Delaware
- Illinois
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Nebraska
- Rhode Island
As far as revenue from the stickers, Bagley said that unlike Texas, who eliminated the stickers but is still going to collect the sticker fees, Louisiana is going to eliminate the fee as well.
When Will this Take Effect?
Bagley said that if the bill passes, which he expects it to, the bill would take effect the beginning of the state's fiscal year, July 1st.
What States Have the Worst Roads