Permanent registration for older vehicles will continue in Mat-Su

As of right now, owners of vehicles eight years old or older in the Mat-Su Borough have the opportunity to register those vehicles for as long as they continue to own them. On Tuesday, an effort to repeal that program was tabled indefinitely. KTNA’s Phillip Manning has more.

On Tuesday night, an ordinance to repeal permanent registration for the older vehicles and trailers in the Mat-Su Borough was tabled indefinitely.

Assembly Member Jim Sykes, who represents District 1 in the southeastern area of the borough, proposed the ordinance earlier this year. He is also the one who proposed killing the repeal effort.

“The reality of this is that we have arrived a bit of an unfairness.”

Sykes says that unfairness comes from the fact that permanent registration has been in effect for eight months.

“So, if we do cut it off now, it does create a de facto two groups: one who got the permanent [registration] and one who did not have the opportunity to get it.”

Permanent registration for vehicles eight years old or older was allowed by the state legislature last year. Lawmakers in Juneau left it up to local governments to determine whether it would take effect, however, since local governments receive some of their road maintenance funds from vehicle registration. The state measure has a built-in sunset clause that takes effect at the end of next year.

Assembly Member Sykes’ attempt to repeal permanent registration stems from potential impacts to the borough’s road service areas and dust control funding.

Barbara Doty, who represents District 6, says that the program should be allowed to continue until its natural sunset date.

“I do think that, if we pass something, we need to test it out. We may need to revisit this when push comes to shove when we’re doing the budget, but we’re not doing the budget at the moment.”

The motion to postpone the repeal indefinitely was unopposed, effectively killing the ordinance and allowing permanent registration to continue.