BALTIMORE — Maryland lawmakers are considering changes to the state’s historic vehicle registration rules following a recent shift that moved eligibility from a rolling age standard to a fixed cutoff year.
Last year, the General Assembly changed the definition of a historic vehicle from a rolling 20-year rule to a fixed cutoff of model year 1999. The change was included in the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act (BRFA), a massive bill to balance the state's budget, and affected roughly a third of Maryland’s estimated 200,000 historic vehicle registrations. State budget documents projected the change would generate about $6 million in revenue.
Under the new law, vehicles from model years 2000 through 2005 no longer qualify for historic tags and must transition to standard registration.
READ MORE: Drivers say Maryland’s new historic tag cutoff isn’t about safety — it’s about raising revenue
As drivers began receiving notices from the Motor Vehicle Administration, questions surfaced about what is required to make that switch including whether safety inspections are necessary.
Sean Lucas, who had been driving a 2001 Lincoln LS registered as a historic vehicle, said he received notices from the MVA informing him that his car no longer qualified and would need a safety inspection to obtain standard plates.
"I knew in two months, with it being 20 degrees, there was no chance in the world I was going to get it past a Maryland safety inspection in time. I still need a vehicle to drive, so I was forced to buy a car," said Lucas.
But when he went to the MVA to turn in his tags, he was told something different.
"He said, well, you can have your tags right now, they're free. I'm like, I'm sorry? Don't I need a safety inspection and an emission test? No, you've had your car since 2004. You don't need that. I was like,that's not what they sent us. Not in any communication," Lucas said. "It cost me $12,000 to find a new car, not to mention a month of looking."
The MVA confirmed that drivers switching from historic to standard plates are not required to obtain a new safety inspection if one is already on file and was completed by the current owner. The agency says it checks for existing inspections before issuing notices, but in Lucas’s case, the inspection record had been submitted manually rather than through the automated system, triggering a notice sent in error. The MVA says it is aware of only one such instance.
The law change is now the subject of new legislation in the General Assembly.
State Senator Justin Ready, a Republican representing Carroll and Frederick Counties, introduced legislation aimed at revising the historic vehicle rules. His bill would replace the fixed cutoff with a rolling 25-year eligibility standard. The proposal would also require the MVA to automatically reinstate historic registrations for drivers who lost that status as a result of last year’s change, without requiring those drivers to reapply.
Historic vehicles would still be prohibited from daily use under the proposal. Ready has said enforcement remains a challenge.
"I think people should follow the law, and I'm okay with it being more enforced. I'm open to hearing ideas about it. I want there to be a robust historic tag system that's used for the way it's supposed to be used. And again, as I said, I'd like to bring costs down for drivers in general so we have less of the temptation to want to cheat the system," said Ready.
A second bill introduced this session would also restore a rolling 25-year eligibility rule but does not include a provision to automatically reinstate historic registrations for drivers affected by the earlier law change.
Both bills are scheduled for a hearing Thursday.
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