Want to pay to have your car inspected every year?

As a motorcyclist and former Motorcycle Safety Foundation instructor, I have a natural interest in any legislation pertaining to motorcycles.

I did a search yesterday of motorcycle-related bills before the Arkansas Legislature and discovered House Bill 1494.

Sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, HB 1494 calls for mandatory inspection of most motor vehicles at the time of registration and on a continuing annual basis.

This is hardly a new concept. We used to have annual vehicle safety inspections in Indiana before the Legislature realized the program was a waste of time and had no effect on accidents and fatalities.

But here's the kicker. The bill also creates an “Autism Support Fund,” a “Community Health Centers Fund,” and a “Non-Medicare Primary Retiree Fund” and earmarks the inspection fees, which could be anywhere from $10 to $30, to be allocated to those three funds.

The Autism Support Fund is to be used “to provide research in the area of autism and to provide support services for persons with autism.”

The Community Health Centers Fund would be used to fund community health centers in Arkansas. Both would be administered by the Arkansas Department of Health.

The Non-Medicare Primary Retiree Fund would assist active public school retirees who are not eligible for Medicare with the costs of insurance payments. I would be managed by the Employee Benefits Division of the Department of Finance and Administration.

The bill tasks the State Police with inspections and enforcement, but does nothing to defray the program costs to that agency.

Of course, the most outrageous thing about this ill-conceived legislation is that it burdens the motoring public with a hassle and an expense for a regulation that will do virtually nothing for public safety and creates three new bureaucracies that have absolutely nothing to do with motor vehicle safety.

It reminds me of a similar bill that slipped through the Indiana General Assembly a couple of years ago that increased the motorcycle registration fee by $10 and earmarked the funds for spinal cord and brain injury research. It was based on the erroneous assumption that motorcycle accidents account for a disproportionate share of those injuries when, in fact, they do not. The Indiana fix was to drop the $10 motorcycle fee and institute a 30 cent registration increase for all motor vehicles. The legislator still got money for her favorite charity, but at least she could make a case for some link between highway accidents and spinal cord and brain injuries.

No such link exists between a dubious highway safety program and autism, community health centers and public school retirees with health insurance problems.

This is an example of a legislator who is willing to inconvenience and burden all of us to fund her pet projects.

The bill was filed on Feb. 17 and has been referred to the House Committee on Public Transportation where, with any luck at all, it will languish and die.

If you live in Arkansas, please write to your representatives and ask them to kill HB 1494.