This Just In ...

Something stinks: Wisconsin's Vehicle Inspection Program

Posted by Kevin Fischer on Jan. 3, 2011

In the early 80’s, this young reporter working at the time for WUWM covered the opening of southeast Wisconsin’s very first vehicle emissions testing site.

Governor Tony Earl’s Department of Transportation Secretary Lowell Jackson pulled his state owned vehicle in for the inaugural screening. Technicians put the car to the test and Jackson then drove out to a host of TV cameras and reporters armed with questions. Jackson proudly sat behind the wheel and spoke highly about the new program.

Then came the big moment. Cameras and tape recorders were rolling. Notepads were out. A state employee with paper in hand delivered the news to Secretary Jackson.

“I’m sorry, sir. Your vehicle didn’t pass.”

Jackson’s countenance suddenly changed, looking as though he had swallowed a mouse.

Wisconsin should have dropped the program right then and there.

The vehicle inspection program now in place in several counties costs about $11 million a year according to a recent Legislative Fiscal Bureau report. Our air is cleaner than it’s ever been. The need for this bureaucracy that can cost a motorist hundreds or thousands of dollars in repairs if the computer deems the car has flunked is highly questionable. The program is about as foolish as the DNR issuing Ozone Action Days.

My state Representative and hopefully the next Milwaukee County Executive come April, Jeff Stone told the Small Biz Times that one of his legislative priorities is to get rid of the emissions testing.  Good for you, Jeff!  No one can tell me these ugly, beat up tin cans on the roads have passed these goofball requirements.

And why are we testing new and relatively new cars in the first place? In a column last September in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Mike Nichols wrote:

“At least some state employees have to realize the absurdity here because eight or nine years ago, Wisconsin's Legislative Audit Bureau looked into the emissions testing program - and for good reason. While drivers in seven counties in the southeastern part of Wisconsin with cars made between the late 1990s and, for the most part, 2007 are the only ones who are required to have their cars' emissions checked, taxpayers across the entire state - from Bayfield to Bayside - have to pay for the program through both those registration fees and per-gallon fuel taxes.

Checking to see if newer car's emissions are under acceptable limits, in the meantime, is sort of like checking to see if Aaron Rodgers has fingers.

The fact is that literally 99% of three-year-old cars tested at the time of the LAB audit passed the emissions test. Testing cars that are less than five years old is a colossal waste of time and money. In fact, making people drive cars of any age to a special emissions testing center is a colossal waste of time and money.”

No kidding.

Every state program is on the chopping block because we are over $3 billion in the hole. And that includes the emissions testing silliness.

Please, Wisconsin legislators, dump this program, and dump it as soon as you can.