Treasurer proposes small flat fee on vehicle transactions to capture revenue from LLC-registered vehicles

Big Horn County's treasurer raised the prospect of placing a local-option flat fee (or local-option motor-vehicle tax) on the ballot to help fund the Treasurer's office and offset expenses associated with motor-vehicle services.

The treasurer described how some businesses and individuals register vehicles to out-of-state LLCs and suggested a modest per-transaction flat fee could be an equitable way to recover costs without driving business away. "If we started small... $5 a transaction," the treasurer said as an example; the transcript includes discussion of other counties and suggested thresholds for high-value vehicles.

Legal staff advised that both the flat fee and a local-option tax must go to voters; commissioners asked staff for hard numbers on annual transactions, the number of plates registered under LLCs, and modeled revenues before deciding whether to place the question on the ballot. Staff also proposed searching for a previously commissioned DOJ study about transaction counts that the county had paid for but said had not been returned to the county file.