State House committee passes sticker bill
Measure moves to full House; vote not yet scheduled
State Rep. Barry Jozwiak’s proposed legislation to require PennDOT to bring back vehicle registration stickers passed the House Transportation Committee on Tuesday.
The proposed legislation, which Jozwiak says will help PennDOT’s financial crisis and law enforcement with investigations, will be voted on in the House. A date has not yet been scheduled.
The 16-9 vote was taken after a hearing in which legislators questioned Jozwiak on why the state would want to go back to a sticker system when police can look up vehicle registration information on computers in their police vehicles.
Jozwiak, a Bern Township Republican, said it is quicker for an officer to see an expired sticker than it is to check the status on a computer.
Jozwiak, a former state trooper and county sheriff, said the primary benefit is to provide law enforcement with a tool to discover other illegal activity while generating additional funding to help with PennDOT’s funding crisis.
Motorists pay a $38 annual fee to PennDOT for vehicle registration. They can pay in advance for two years. The registration and proof of insurance are required for an annual vehicle inspection.
Connecticut and New Jersey are the only other states that do not require stickers to register a vehicle.
Jozwiak said the state lost $51 million in revenue by scrapping the sticker requirement in 2017 because fewer motorists are paying registration fees.
Jozwiak arrived at the amount of the revenue loss by identifying the total number of decreased registrations by the cost per registration.
Diego M. Sandino, PennDOT spokesman, said Tuesday the legislation is based on false assertions about lost revenues.
He said the department has raised $11.7 million in the three years by eliminating the stickers, resulting in savings.
“It’s disappointing that PennDOT’s efforts to modernize its process and enhance the customer experience are being met with opposition, especially since the basis for this legislation is the inaccurate belief that PennDOT has lost revenue and Pennsylvanians are not properly registering their vehicles,” Sandino said in a prepared statement.
Sandino said customers like the convenience of renewing online and printing documents without having to wait for a sticker in the mail.
Jozwiak said PennDOT still has the equipment to produce the stickers so there would be no added expense.
Rep. Mike Carroll, minority chairman and Luzerne County Democrat, opposes bringing back the stickers because they can be stolen and the new system of registering online is more convenient for consumers.
Carroll also said PennDOT is saving $11 million in processing costs for the stickers.
Jozwiak also noted that that bill is supported by the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, the Pennsylvania State Lodge Fraternal Order of Police and the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association.
Rep. Stephen Kinsley, a Philadelphia Democrat, expressed concern about people peeling off the stickers.
Jozwiak said the sticker could include the license plate number to make it easier to identify the driver.
PennDOT also noted that during the pandemic it has been able to renew registrations online without the need to mail a sticker, while other states that mail stickers experienced backlogs of registrations.