Hearing on making failure to renew vehicle registration a traffic infraction draws criticism

Committee staff explained SB 6176 would create a traffic infraction for failure to renew an expired vehicle registration when the vehicle is parked, standing and unoccupied on public right-of-way or certain private off-street parking facilities (with owner consent). The infraction would be issued to the registered owner, processed like a parking infraction and would not appear on the owner’s driving record. Penalties in the staff summary were $145 if registration has been expired two months or less and $240 if more than two months.

Sponsor Senator King said the bill seeks to address enforcement gaps and recover uncollected tab revenue; he cited operational difficulties identifying expired tabs on moving vehicles and suggested a parked-vehicle infraction would reduce evasion. Public commenters including Jeff Pack (Washington Citizens Against Unfair Taxes) and initiative activist Tim Eyman opposed the proposal as a revenue measure and criticized the Department of Licensing’s License Express system for poor user experience.

Department of Licensing staff signed in to be available for questions. The committee recorded public opposition and did not take immediate action.