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Politics & Government

"Sticking" Point

The state considers requiring vehicle registration stickers, again.

Put it on. Take it off. Put it on again. It appears the state can’t make up its mind regarding vehicle registration stickers.

Last year, many in The Nutmeg State thought they were peeling and scraping off those windshield decals for the last time. The state had voted to stop using the stickers. But come October residents may again be required to slap a registration sticker, or verification of registration, on their license plates.

Talk about sticker shock. The Department of Motor Vehicles estimates it will cost $1.85 million to reinstate the registration sticker program.

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One of the biggest reasons the General Assembly voted to eliminate the sticker program was the deficit. Legislators believed stopping stickers would save lots of money. In fact, it saved more than $800,000, according to DMV.

“Reinstatement of this program would come at significant cost to the state,” said Melody A. Currey, commissioner of DMV. “Significant additional funding will be required to produce plate stickers.”

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Not only will the DMV need to print new stickers, it will have to mail the stickers to the more than 3 million vehicles registered in the state. All that comes with a price tag of about $1.85 million for the first year and about $950,000 for each year thereafter.

The DMV opposes sticker reinstatement in part because it said many police departments use license plate readers to determine if vehicles are registered.

“The technology in this area continues to evolve, lessening the need for stickers,” Currey said.

Yet some police said the readers cost about $18,000 each and so are too pricey for many departments. Only about 15 readers are in use across the state.

Moreover, some local police departments said eliminating vehicle registration stickers hampers law enforcement. Before the legislature voted to get rid of stickers all together, it had required people to place the stickers on the inside of their windshield. That was also considered problematic by some.

“Last year, when Motor Vehicles made the decision to eliminate all vehicle registration stickers, law enforcement lost all ability to easily identify unregistered motor vehicles traveling upon our roadways,” Redding Police Chief Douglas Fuchs told the Transportation Committee. “Once again our enforcement numbers went down in direct proportion to our inability to identify these vehicles. Along with that decrease in enforcement comes a decrease in associated revenue from violations and a decrease in vehicles on grand lists.”

State Sen. Toni Boucher, a Republican representing Bethel, Redding, Ridgefield, Weston, Westport, and Wilton in the 26th Senate District, co-sponsored the bill seeking to reinstate the stickers.

Police also argue that stickers on license plates act as a sort of early warning system. During a traffic stop they can tell if the car is not insured, if the driver’s license has been suspended, if the driver has no license, or even if the car was stolen.

“For years, police officers in Connecticut utilized the rear registration sticker, or lack thereof, as an indication that a vehicle was operating on our roadways in violation of the registration requirements,” Fuchs said.

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