Lawmakers want more compliance with license plate law

Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2003 | 11:15 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- There are few things that irk Las Vegas residents more than people who move here to work but don't get Nevada license plates for their vehicles, Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, said.

And Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, is suggesting that citizen patrols be trained to hunt down such motorists and give them tickets.

The comments came during the Assembly Transportation Committee's Tuesday discussion of a bill by Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas. McClain's bill would require new residents to get their Nevada license plates when they get a Nevada driver's license.

McClain said that 80 percent of people who move to Southern Nevada obey the law by registering their vehicles within 30 days after their arrival. The other 20 percent are evading the law, she said.

In 1996, those failures to comply with the registration requirements cost Nevada $17 million in revenue, McClain said.

McClain's bill, Assembly Bill 30, would also end a practice of giving people refunds when they turn in their license plates. In most cases, those people are moving out of state, she said.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles estimates that $5 million will be lost this year due to the refunds. Clark County governments lost $3.8 million in revenue in the last two years as a result of the refunds.

Dennis Colling, head of administration for DMV, said the average individual refund was $48. Kim Huys of the state Controller's Office said the office sent out 101,000 refunds last fiscal year. She said 10 percent of the people receiving the money did not cash their checks -- probably because 9,100 of the refunds were for less than $1.

She said it costs the controller's office about $15 to process each check, for an annual cost of about $1.5 million.

McClain wants to require motorists to register their cars at the same time they get their driver's license, or else sign an affidavit stating they don't have a vehicle.

Chowning said the biggest gripe she heard while campaigning in last year's election was that too many new residents fail to register their cars within 30 days. Manendo said that established residents feel cheated when newcomers fail to register their cars even after living here for a long time.

Gary Jones, 60, is one of those people. As he waited at the DMV office in Henderson this morning, the 2 1/2-year resident said "all the rest of us are paying for" people who are not complying with the registration law.

But two other men at the DMV today, Ross Anderson, a 35-year-old computer systems analyst, and Bill Reid, a 45-year resident of Las Vegas, said the DMV only has itself to blame.

They said the Nevada's high cost of registration and long waits at the DMV offices discourage people from complying.

"Why spend $400 here when you can spend $40 in your home state?" Anderson said.

Manendo noted the Legislature empowered citizens to write citations for people who illegally park in handicapped spaces, and suggested a similar arrangement for people who ignore the registration requirement.

In Henderson this morning, Anderson called that idea "silly" and Bill Reid said it was "absurd."

McClain's bill was endorsed by Sgt. Bob Roshak of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, who said it would help in police investigations. He said his department encounters about 600 hit-and-run incidents each month, and that a large percentage of them involve cars with out-of-state licenses whose owners live in the Las Vegas area.

McClain's bill would aid in tracking them down, he said.

Gary Wolff, representing the Nevada Highway Patrol Association, also backed the bill. He said troopers are too busy handling other duties to track down people who don't register.

Assemblyman Don Gustavson, R-Sun Valley, said he didn't think the proposal was fair. A person may come to Nevada searching for a job but might not secure one right, he said. But that person would be forced to register his car and would be denied a refund if he decided to return to his home state, Gustavson said.