The first week of Rhode Island’s new emissions testing program went more or less as expected despite some glitches and moves by legislators to rein in the cost of the tests. “I don’t know if a start up is ever really smooth, but we’re there and we’re going,” said Barbara Trainor of Keating Technologies, which has a state contract to run the program.
The new emissions-control inspection became mandatory for some motorists this month. Of the 250 automobile repair shops leasing the emissions-control testing equipment from Keating, 220 were actually doing inspections as of last week, Trainor said. She expects the rest to be ready by the end of the month.
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More than 6,500 car inspections had been performed under the new emissions-control program as of January 12, according to Keating.
Main Street Shell in East Greenwhich has inspected some cars under the new program with no problems so far.
But a mechanic at Maple Root Garage in Coventry said, “It’s day by day. The system is kind of up and down, but hopefully it’ll smooth out, get the bugs out.”
Grasso’s Service Center in Providence also reports a couple of glitches with the testing equipment. All three repair shops report that most cars are passing the emissions-control test.
Garage owners have complained that the new test will take longer to perform than the half-hour cited by Keating.
“It takes an hour to do an inspection, a good hour,” agreed a mechanic at Grasso’s Service Center.
But Keating’s Trainor expects the time required to do the test to decrease in the coming months.
“The more the technicians are familiar with it, the more they do, the more quickly they operate and the more comfortable they feel,” she said.
Meanwhile, moves are afoot in the Legislature to limit or reduce the cost of the new car-inspection program.
State Sen. Donna Walsh, a Democrat from Charlestown, introduced a bill early this month that would reduce the cost of an inspection sticker from $47 to $33 by eliminating the state’s cut of the fee.
Under the current program, the $47 fee is split up as follows: $18 to the inspection station, $14 to the state general fund, $13 to Keating and $2 to administer the program.
Walsh is targeting the $14 the state pockets because, although the new inspection stickers are good for two years, the annual cost to motorists increased by $8.50 under the new program. The old fee was $15 per year.
“Some of these people are going to have to spend money on repairing their cars. Give it back to people and let them use it to maintain their cars,” she said. “It’s really just one of those hidden taxes, of which we have many.”
The measure is likely to face resistance among some legislators because it eliminates state revenue–about $4.3 million a year–without proposing an alternative source of funds.
State Sen. Leonidas Raptakis, a Democrat representing Coventry and West Warwick, is taking a different approach. He was expected to introduce a bill this week that would cap the car-inspection fee at $47 for the life of the seven-year contract with Keating.
“I don’t want to see the inspection program costs up to $80 by the fifth or six year,” he said. “The contractor (Keating) might come back and say, ‘We can’t do the job. Can you help us balance the costs. We’ll give this back if you allow us to increase the fee.’ ”
Raptakis introduced a similar bill last year that was held for further study. Opponents of the measure argue that the $47 cap doesn’t allow for unexpected costs that could pop up later.
