Some legislators fight for the poor, the sick, and the downtrodden. Representative Tom Pischke fights for deadbeat dads and vanity license plate buyers.
The Dell Rapid Republican rose on the House floor yesterday to speak for his House Bill 1158, which would drop the extra annual fee ($25 for cars, $20 for motorcycles) that holders of personalized license plates pay to get their renewal stickers. Pischke’s original text would have eliminated the fee completely. At the beginning of debate yesterday, he moved to amend HB 1158 to bring the fee for vanity platers into conformity with the $10 fee paid by folks with other special plates, like our emblem plates, historic plates, and veteran plates. Noting the fiscal note request, Pischke said lowering the vanity-plate fee would decrease revenue a measly $340,000, which he said would not be noticed amidst the $202 million raised since we raised our road taxes in 2015.
Republican Representative Roger Chase from Huron responded with an unfriendly amendment to turn Pischke’s fee cut into a fee hike. Chase proposed raising the vanity plate fees to $35 for cars and $30 for motorcycles and directing the additional $10 per plate to state support for local transit services. Chase said the transit service in Huron has been asking him for help: they say their fleet is aging and maintenance costs are “eating us up.” Transit services give rides to old folks going to the grocery store, disabled folks going to work, and little kids going to preschool. Chase said folks who can afford vanity plates can spare a few dollars to help people who can’t drive or afford cars of their own.
Rep. Pischke “not so much for me but for the other sponsors of this legislation. They signed onto this bill with the assumption that this would be a fee reduction bill.” Yes, because the record shows that Pischke is never concerned about himself and only about others.
Rapid City right wing extremist Representative Taffy Howard did note that the plate fee is a fee for service rendered, not a tax, and that it surely doesn’t cost $35 to print a new sticker. However, Rep. Howard offered no reason that Rep. Chase couldn’t turn the privilege of renewing a vanity plate into an opportunity for South Dakotans to support mass transit for lower-income neighbors.
Sisseton Democratic Representative Steven McCleery noted that personalized plates used to cost $100, so the Chase amendment was still a good deal and a good way to support transit options for old folks.
One four-hundredth of the population of Union Center stood up in the manly form of Republican Larry Rhoden and said he hasn’t heard anyone
“ringing the bell” to hike or spike vanity plate fees, so he recommended the House vote no on everything. The House obliged, shouting down the Chase amendment, then killing Pischke’s cut 21–44.
The Pischke cut failed on the argument from Rep. Chase saying HB 1158 would cut money to already-strapped counties and townships. Conservative Hartford Representative Michael Clark said the $187.72 his town of Hartford got last year from the vanity plate fees helped fix a mower and save more money. Majority Leader Lee Qualm said he has a vanity plate and has no problem paying the $25 fee.
I bet you this Representative Taffy thinks that it only costs a few bits for a sticker. That’s the only cost, the cost of that fancy sticker. There is probably more that goes into it besides the cost of the sticker.