December 20, 2020 – Illinoisans will have to wait until the pandemic subsides to take advantage of the new law allowing for two-year vehicle registration.
Enacted in 2018, the legislation enables two-year passenger vehicle registration, instead of needing to register every year. The law ordered the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office to begin the new registrations on Jan. 1, but the legislature was notified recently that they would not be able to make that happen.
Why? According to the Secretary of State office, they don’t have the necessary computer upgrades yet in order to implement the changes and that will require new programming and significant transition planning.
“We support the plan to have multi-year plates, but due to budget constraints related to the pandemic, we are not able to begin the program immediately,” Secretary of State spokesman Dave Druker said. “The pandemic limits our ability to implement new programs and using limited resources.”
The change would have also meant paying the newly-more expensive registration two years at a time. For a passenger vehicle or Class B truck, a registrant would pay $302 for a two-year sticker, rather than $151 annually. That’s more expensive than all but a handful of states.
