Elliott Davis and Megan Mueller
ST. LOUIS – Mayor Tishaura Jones is receiving backlash over her new program to provide loans to drivers with expired temp tags. Some members on the Board of Aldermen aren’t keen on the idea, among many others.
“Well, you’re taking money from people who pay taxes and giving it to people who can’t pay taxes,” Joe Vollmer said. “How are you going to implement this and who’s going to pay for the implementation of that? People who don’t want to pay something…What’s the next thing they’re going to do? I need bullets for my gun; will the city provide bullets? I don’t know where this is going.”
But other board members, such as Rasheen Aldridge, agrees with the mayor’s program.
“I think this is a good start…life is tough. Some people may say, ‘Well, if they can’t afford the car why did they go get it?’ You have to get a car to get back and forth to work on top of rent being expensive, food and groceries, if you have kids,” he said. “I think this is a great way instead of just criminalizing people. Kind of give them a second chance…it’s not that they don’t have to pay the taxes, it’s just an extension.”
The New York Times recently covered the approach the City of St. Charles is taking to combat the issue, specifically taking pictures citizens see of expired tags and sending it to the city,
“(The program is doing) very well, we had over 4,615 sent in and they’re still trickling in… after I read the article it seems like an epidemic all across the country, people are searching for ways to solve it. I think Chief Jensen and I just got lucky with the photo thing—and its worked pretty well,” Mayor Dan Borgmeyer said.
Mayor Tishaura Jones’ Office issued the following statement regarding the program:
This week, the City of St. Louis released a Request for Proposal (RFP) to assist the City in creating and implementing a program to reduce the prevalence of expired temporary tags and uninsured drivers in the City. The purpose of the RFP is to invite groups to submit proposals to the City to be considered as an implementing partner for this forthcoming initiative.
For many years, the City of St. Louis has experienced a significant volume of drivers of cars with expired temporary tags. This issue increased notably during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the state waived certain vehicle registration requirements. While last year the state passed a new law to allow dealers to collect the sales tax at the point of purchase, that law will not be implemented for several years.
The proliferation of expired temporary tags negatively impacts the City, its drivers, and all its residents. When an individual does not pay taxes on their cars, they are not registered, and that means they likely do not have insurance. An uninsured driver is a problem for everyone on the road. In the event of an accident caused by an uninsured driver, medical and auto repair costs often go uncompensated or not-fully compensated. Uninsured drivers also often cause insurance premiums to rise even higher for those who do have auto insurance (there has been some local reporting on this in recent years).
In addition to the SLMPD’s increasing focus on traffic enforcement, the City is looking to supplement its targeting of this problem via auxiliary methods. The aim of this forthcoming program is to get drivers with expired temporary tags right with the law in a way that helps them stay compliant and insured.
The forthcoming program envisions partnerships with community organizations with experience in financial intervention lending to enroll participants in a loan-repayment program. The program intends to provide participants who may not have been able to afford paying the entire amount of tax owed upfront with the ability to become compliant through more manageable monthly repayments. It also envisions requiring participation in regular and ongoing financial counseling through the duration of repayment, to leave participants more financially educated, capable and stable moving forward–maximizing their ability to be long-term responsible drivers.
Getting non-compliant drivers right with the law and capable of taking care of their financial and insurance obligations will result in more insured drivers, which benefits the entire community. With increased daily costs of living continuing to impact individuals and families, and with traffic safety a continued focus of residents and City government, the aim is to decrease the unfortunately very real negative impact the utilization of expired temporary tags has not only on the drivers who use them, but also on other drivers and the insurance premiums of our community.
Because this is in the RFP phase, this program does not yet exist, and will not for many months. There will be many conversations between the City and prospective and actual implementation partners during the coming months to most effectively position this forthcoming program as an effective companion to ongoing traffic enforcement activities. Traffic enforcement activities will continue to increase in the City, and the City will continue to implement a variety of strategies to make streets safer for everyone.
Office of Mayor Tishaura Jones
