Since he’s not running for District 13 House again, G. Mark Mickelson will spend more of his time this summer and fall persuading us that out-of-state money is bad for our ballot measure campaigns. Will Mickelson or anyone else argue that out-of-state money is bad for our roads?
Seth Tupper and the Rapid City Journal pay the Department of Revenue and Regulation $142 to get some at BIT to hit “Sort” on a spreadsheet and learns that out-of-staters currently hold 58,334 vehicle registrations in South Dakota, 4% of the total active registrations. How much money does that put into our potholes?
An official with the state Department of Revenue and Regulation said the sum has not been calculated, and the effort would be complicated because of the wide range of registration fees depending on the type, age and weight of vehicles.
But a rough estimate can be gleaned from available data, including the statewide annual revenue from vehicle registrations and titles, which is about $173 million. If the out-of-staters who account for 4 percent of the registrations also account for 4 percent of the revenue, the money coming from out-of-staters would be nearly $7 million (when the Journal shared that estimate with a state revenue official, she declined to assess its accuracy) [Seth Tupper, “58,334 Out-of-State Vehicles Registered in South Dakota,” Rapid City Journal, 2018.03.25].
I suppose it doesn’t hurt South Dakota directly to receive money from people who are committing crimes in their home states by not registering their vehicles where they live. But our countenancing of criminal cars doesn’t make us a great neighbor:
South Dakota is not the only state that attracts vehicle registrations from outside its borders. In 2016, according to the Washington Post, an investigation by Virginia authorities identified 2,300 vehicles that were illegally registered outside of that state, including 742 in Maryland, where the lack of a vehicle property tax made registration cheaper.
California officials grew so perturbed by illegally registered vehicles that they created a program called CHEATERS, an acronym for “Californians Help Eliminate All The Evasive Registration Scofflaws.” On the CHEATERS website, Californians can anonymously report out-of-state license plates on cars that they suspect belong to fellow Californians. The program was created in 2004, and it had helped recover $11.5 million in unpaid registration fees by 2015, according to a report by the California Highway Patrol.
In South Dakota, Pennington County Treasurer Janet Sayler takes a passive approach to registrations from outside the state. She does nothing to attract them, she said, and she expects drivers to know the laws in their home state. If they get caught violating their own state’s laws, Sayler has no sympathy for them [Tupper, 2018.03.25].
Wait a minute: a public official takes a “passive approach” to lawbreakers from out of state? Aren’t these Californians and Virginians and others illegally immigrating their cars? Aren’t South Dakota counties that register these foreign vehicles making us a sanctuary state for scofflaws? Shouldn’t certain legislators be outraged at our willingness to shelter criminals for for filthy lucre?
If G. Mark Mickelson thinks out-of-state money corrupts our politics, and if Shantel Krebs is willing to crosscheck voter registrations in Kris Kobach’s database to help states prevent violations of their election laws, perhaps South Dakota should sign onto a nationwide vehicle registration database, or at least do the DMVs in Virginia, California, and elsewhere the courtesy of sending them a note whenever folks from those fair states register vehicles in South Dakota, just to make sure everyone is following the law.
Come on now….the big “evil doers” that are not contributing to our economy/revenue are the on line businesses!!! (sarcasm intended)
Yeah, these folks registered in other states — can you imagine how much revenue these folks would help out with if they were actually living here and spending money here? Like you have mentioned Cory (and in many past blogs also), these folks also have a voice in SD elections. SOS Krebs is too busy cuddling up to Mr Kobach to address that, I guess.
The “Mailbox” industry in this state (where you can get a SD post office box, use a SD mailing address, and have your mail forwarded to you where you are actually living) is pretty big business (again, Cory has documented this in previous posts)
These are just a few I found in less than 2 minutes of a google search. And, alot of these companies will not only help you with your South Dakota “registry”, they will help you with the smooth registration of all of your vehicles!!! Woo hoo! Greatest thing ever!!
https://dakotapost.net/
http://mydakotaaddress.com/
http://www.sdrvmail.com/
http://www.americas-mailbox.com/
There are four others that I found, that basically say and do the same thing and encourage registering your cars with them for a “South Dakota Registry”
Yes, SOS Krebs, these out-of-staters, who not only do not contribute to our economy (ok, ok, SDDOR gets some cash – big deal) , but they are voting in SD elections. I’m glad you found the stolen state flag, but it would be even better to stop people who are helping to “steal” SD democracy.
My wife’s uncle did this his whole adult life, 60+ years. He did move around a bit though. We seem to be kind of notorious for these get rich quick schemes.
A bit off topic, but South Dakota has been more than happy over the years to whore themselves out to the banking industries in things like collections and raiding of inactive accounts. This has created windfall profits that Republicans like to pat themselves on the back over. I’ve always said it was revenue that was built on a house of cards. As soon as another state sweetened the pot a bit more, then those banks would drop us like a bad habit. Has that
Sorry, prematurely sent it…. Does this have anything to do with Wells Fargo leaving Aberdeen? Did somebody else sweeten the pot a bit better?
Go down south all rv’ers are from SD as their plates say but not really from Sd
And if you happen to visit SLab city
In CA where there are a lot of rubber neckers (homelless on wheels) you will find a good majority are from SD
Because it’s less expensive and cheap insurance. Even though they never been here not to mention when I inquired they called us “the dakotas”
So SD is a sanctuary state for criminals? I thought it was conservative and only liberal states were sanctuary states.
What has SD come to?!
there are more out of state licensed vehicles in the county than registered pennington county dems.
I don’t really see a problem with this from a practical standpoint. We receive revenue we otherwise wouldn’t if these people didn’t register their vehicles here. I’m sure many are actually residents of other states who are skirting higher fees at home, but I bet there are also quite a few people who really are transient and live on the road and don’t have a home state, so I don’t really blame them for being smart and selective about paying one of the few necessary bills they can’t avoid by living in their RVs or whatever else.
If we cared enough we could simply amend the requirements for residency in our state statutes to weed out some if these. But we don’t. Bigger fish to fry.
Ryan, our state legislators don’t care about the residency requirements for these out of staters that vote in our elections because they are predominantly Republican voters. If and when liberals from California start registering vehicles here en masse, our residency requirements would be tightened up so fast it would make your head spin. These fish are being fried just how our Republican overlords prefer.
I should have mentioned, I only meant the registered vehicles seem harmless. Voting definitely seems like it crosses into being a real issue. I would have to know how often that actually happens by people who don’t reside here at least more than occasionally before I would know how big of a concern it really is.
We agree voting by out-of-staters is problematic. Cool. If these vehicle registrations open the door to that election interference, that’s problematic.
But I would contend (and I’ll leave out the genuine transients; let’s talk just the clear cheaters, living full-time in California but registering their cars here) that allowing the registrations is a problem in itself for South Dakota. We are helping residents of other states avoid their states’ laws. Sure, we make money on the scheme—and the return rate is better than local registrations, since those 58K out-of-state vehicles are putting almost zero wear on our roads. But if we say, “Oh, we make money on it, so that’s o.k.,” we open the door to saying, “Oh, we make money on undocumented workers who come live and work and pay sales tax here, so let’s drop Stace’s push to help ICE enforce immigration law.”
I would worry that if other states can’t trust us on this issue, if they see us cannibalizing their registration revenues, other states might balk at other cooperative agreements with us or even retaliate with other policies that could hurt our bottom line and opportunities for our students and travelers. Heck, if I’m California and I know folks are cheating on car registration, I might just direct the CHiPs to put cars with SD license plates at the top of their daily ticket stops.
Cory,
Let’s make sure the State of California spends money making sure every business in California makes sure South Dakota residents are paying the use tax from purchases they make from California businesses……..
How about instead of spending money on California, we use that money for people in SD?
I love the spirt in which the article is intended but I think it is much to do about nothing. If you have ever spent any time in Baja California and elsewhere in Mexico you will see thousands of cars titled and registered in South Dakota there. South Dakota’s belief in limited regulation and freedom is the reason for this and I for one appreciate it and applaud you for it.
Let’s continue bashing California for a moment where you must have your car’s emissions control devices inspected and tested every two years. This involves producing your car at an emissions testing center and having the smog police run the car on a dynamometer and measure the resulting emissions. For me it would mean a 27 hour 1200 mile drive from my home in Todos Santos to where I live in Northern California (in all a 60 hour 2400 mile investment) at 12 miles to the gallon it’s a $700 trip there and back, another $50 for the useless test and a trip to the California DMV. California also requires your car be insured there if it is there or elsewhere for your California registration to remain valid.
Sigh, you get the idea. Again, I thank you and I appreciate having the great state of South Dakota on my truck as a symbol of freedom and what citizenship should look like.
Colonel Michael Strunk
Todos Santos,
Baja California Sur
It is an honor to register and license my RV and old 1958 restored truck in South Dakota. I don’t live there – yet, but I do make a trip there every two years to visit relatives.
Criminals – really? Why is it criminal to pay taxes and road tax in South Dakota? You still need to provide proof of insurance, VIN number et al. The criminals are the ones who do not register anywhere and drive around in uninsured vehicles with 30-day moving permits. They are a menace to everyone. At least you know that when people register their vehicles in South Dakota, they have vehicle insurance and they are paying taxes.
Voting in South Dakota? Yeah sure, I’m going to drive to South Dakota for 3 days in each direction to cast a vote for dog catcher or whomever – not. That being said, I really do like your governor! Ms. Noem is intelligent and has dirt-farmer intelligence to boot. Imagine that. Watch her rise in the future.
Ram Francis