Annual Vehicle Inspection Rule Ending in Texas? If We’re Lucky!
I remember not too long ago when the rules changed, for the worse. That was when getting your car inspected - already a yearly hassle - became a mandatory requirement for renewing your registration. No proof of passing inspection to show? No renewal! Now, per KEYE News in Austin, a Texas State Senator says enough's enough!
I admit adding the "inspection proof requirement" to the vehicle registration renewal process successfully closed a loophole that allowed people to drag their feet on annual inspection updates (I plead the 5th!), but the point is, what real benefit actually comes from your car or truck actually passing inspection?
Not very much, according to Senator Don Huffines of Dallas. He says it's not about safety, but rather just another money-making opportunity for the State - another form of taxation, according to Austin's Time Warner Cable News.
The Senator says that's the main reason he introduced a bill in the State Legislature that when passed (optimistic p-o-v I admit), will repeal the 66-year-old annual vehicle inspection requirement.
Texas is just one of 15 states that still mandates annual inspections, another key point in the Senator's argument that time has passed this rule by. He also points out that eliminating annual vehicle inspections will put $266-million back in Lone Star State citizens' hands, not to mention the time-suck 9-million hours people spend taking their cars & trucks through the process.