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 Illinois drivers will pay the nation’s highest base fee and
fifth highest overall fee for vehicle registration to help fund Gov. J.B.
Pritzker’s $45 billion infrastructure plan.
The General Assembly passed the infrastructure proposal June 2, and Pritzker is
expected to sign it. The legislation also includes a doubled gas tax expected to
cost a family with two cars $300 more a year.
Under the proposal, Illinois drivers of standard vehicles weighing 8,000 pounds
or less will see registration fees jump from $98 to $148 in 2020.
All other large vehicles, including trailers and buses, will
see registration fee increases of $100. The registration on electronic vehicles
will increase from $35 every two years to $248 every year. Motorcycles will not
see a change in the $38 registration cost.
Illinois’ registration fee will be substantially higher than other states’ fees.
Among neighboring states, Illinois is the only one to charge a flat rate over
$100 for registration.
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Illinois Policy Institute research showed no other
state charges residents a base fee as high as Illinois. However,
some states use a formula based on factors such as age, weight, and
value to determine renewal fees, meaning some of their residents may
pay more than Illinois residents for the same vehicle. For example,
Iowa charges drivers $0.40 for every 100 pounds a passenger vehicle
weighs multiplied by a percentage of the list price of the vehicle,
which depends on its age. Other states such as Florida charge their
residents a large tax the first time they register a vehicle, and
then impose small age-related fees in the following years.
IPI based calculations on a standard sedan weighing
about 2,500 pounds that was sold in 2018 at a value of about $20,000
to determine fees in states with variable rates. The calculations
showed that Illinois still has the fifth-largest vehicle
registration fee in the nation, even when comparing it to drivers in
other states who are registering a newer, lighter car.
Illinois in 2019 was again ranked as having the
nation’s highest overall tax burden, at just shy of 15% of median
household income. Adding another superlative by having Illinois
residents pay the nation’s highest base vehicle registration fees is
another reason for drivers to head for the state line and keep on
going, just like 313 people a day on average have chosen to do for
the past five years.
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