Maine Senate overwhelmingly votes down proposed vehicle inspection fee hike

Vehicle inspection stickers at the Maine State Police in Augusta, waiting to be mailed out to inspection stations. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Maine vehicle inspection fees will be left alone after all.

The state Senate on Friday overwhelmingly voted against a House-approved bill that would have raised annual inspection fees as a way to fund an electronic inspection system promoted by Maine police.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bruce White, D-Waterville, would have raised the fee ceiling for the annually required inspection to $20. The current cost is $12.50 in all counties except Cumberland, where the price is $18.50.

For a brief time, it looked like L.D. 900 could have passed, when the House approved the bill Thursday in a 74-68 vote.

But the significant margin by which the Senate voted it down – 30-2 – makes it very unlikely that it will succeed. Sens. Brad Farrin, R-Norridewock, and Matt Pouliot, R-Augusta, were the only two senators to vote for the bill.

Maine requires that all vehicles be inspected for safety by a licensed inspector annually. Cumberland County also requires an additional emissions test. The state Motor Vehicle Bureau is responsible for overseeing the inspections of 1.3 million vehicles carried out by 8,000 inspection technicians at 2,600 inspection stations across the state.

While most other states with mandatory inspections have digitized their programs in recent years, Maine has not.

Around one-third of states in the U.S. require vehicle inspections annually or every other year, but Maine is one of only three that runs its vehicle inspection system using handwritten documents and snail mail.

The Maine State Police, which supports the proposed fee increase, had said creating an electronic system would help reduce fraud, streamline the work for inspectors and save money.

Lawmakers and politicians have pushed back against raising user fees or spending money to modernize the programs.

A similar effort was dropped last year after Gov. Janet Mills threatened to veto it.

White had said the modernization effort would be rolled out over a period of about two years by a private company contracted with the state, though it was unclear when fees would have started to increase if the bill passed.