Secretary of State to resume mailing out vehicle registration renewal notices

Vehicle owners will once again start receiving reminders to renew their vehicle registrations in the mail, the Secretary of State’s Office said Monday.

In October, Secretary of State Jesse White’s office discontinued mailing reminders because of the budget impasse. That created a flood of motorists who forgot to renew their license plates, resulting millions of dollars in late fees for the state.

The stop-gap budget recently agreed to by the governors’ office and the General Assembly allowed for the secretary of state to reinstate the registration notices.

From Jan. 1 through July 22, more than 563,000 vehicle owners were late with their vehicle sticker renewals, which was more than double during the same time frame in 2015, said Dave Druker, spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office. The late fees brought an additional $5.7 million into the state’s general fund.

To help offset the cost of mailing out reminders, the Secretary of State’s Office is drafting legislation that would allow it to sell advertising space on mailers.

“The notices are an essential tool for the public to be sure their vehicles are in good standing and avoid paying late fees and fines resulting from tickets issued by law enforcement,” White said. “The driving public paid the price for the budget impasse and it proved to be an unfair burden. With the funds from the stop-gap budget, the notices will resume. In addition, we are reducing the number of mailings and seeking alternative funding sources for the postage costs.”

White’s office did encourage people to sign up for email reminders to renew their vehicle stickers after the mailed reminders stopped. The website to sign up for email reminders is www.cyberdriveillinois.com. More than 2.3 million people are signed up for the service, including 800,000 who signed up since October.

To register for the program, vehicle owners will need their assigned registration ID and PIN, which can be found on their current vehicle registration card, the secretary of state’s office said. If that information is not available, motorists can call the Secretary of State’s public inquiry division at 800-252-8980 to obtain a Registration ID and PIN.

The one-time registration process will allow vehicle owners to receive a series of three email notices per vehicle each year reminding motorists of the upcoming vehicle sticker expiration date.

This story was originally published August 1, 2016 at 3:59 PM with the headline "Secretary of State to resume mailing out vehicle registration renewal notices."