The state of Illinois doesn’t have money, so we shouldn’t have it, either.
How else to explain the dirty trick the Illinois secretary of state’s office played on us when it stopped sending out notices that auto emissions tests were due?
Oh, the state is stopping that stoppage, but the damage has been done.
It started back in October when the secretary of state announced (but not very loudly) that because of the lack of a state budget the state needed to save money. So, notices of upcoming auto emissions test would, temporarily at least, not be sent out to save on postage.
This would initially affect drivers who normally would receive a notice in December that they needed an emissions test before the end of March.
This was me.
But, like every car owner in the state, I didn’t remember when my emissions test expired. The state would let me know. Only it didn’t.
But the state slipped up in my case. Each year, I renew my license plate via email after receiving a computerized reminder. I received such a reminder in December. The reminder mentioned I could not renew my license plate until my car had passed an emissions test, which I had to do by the end of March.
I took my car to the emissions station I have been using for years, expecting the usual long wait. Turns out I was there all by myself. There is a small fine for missing the emissions test deadline. And, according to recent baiduhai reporting, between January and March 2015, 111,200 late registration citations were levied for a total of $2.2 million in fines. For the same time period this year, there were 247,913 citations for a total of $5 million in fines.
Belatedly, the state has realized withholding emissions notices is a bad idea.
On April 6, the secretary of state started mailing emissions notices to drivers whose emissions test expire in March, April and May, retroactive to March.
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And starting June 1, the system of mailing notification notices will go back to normal.
But – and there always is a but or two – the state will not mail notices that license plate stickers are about to expire.
And we drivers still must pass an emissions test before we can renew our license plates.
So there.
Paul Sassone is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.