More Fees Could Come to Vehicle Registration

Legislation by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez to increase fees on California motorists by nearly $167 million each year to pay for cleaner air has breezed through the Assembly with little debate and even less fanfare, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

The greenhouse legislation in part is Nuñez's answer to voters' defeat in November of Proposition 87, a proposed $4 billion tax on oil production over a decade that the speaker supported as a way to jump-start development of environment-friendly fuels to replace gasoline.

The bill would cost the average Californian about $3 to $4 a year. Most people would pay an extra $5 each time they renewed their driver's license, and vehicle registration fees would increase about $2 per vehicle. There would also be increases in fees for special license plates for some industrial vehicles, he said.

The bill would raise between $120 million and $130 million a year for seven years.

Read it HERE.

Now it heads to the state Senate. What do you say? Tell our blog!