Subcommittee approves move to digital verification in vehicle restoration process, eliminating physical decals

The House Transportation DMV Subcommittee voted 8-0 to report House Bill 2080, which would remove the legal requirement for physical vehicle restoration decals and replace them with a digital verification system allowing law enforcement and local officials to verify restoration status electronically.

The bill’s sponsor (recorded in committee as Delegate McQuinn) described the measure as a modernization effort intended to eliminate production and distribution costs for decals and reduce customer trips to DMV offices. DMV staff told the committee the agency currently spends approximately $2,300,000 annually producing and distributing restoration decals; the sponsor said more than 560,000 residents spend about 30 minutes each year waiting in DMV customer service centers to obtain decals, and that roughly 60,000 decals are stolen annually. DMV witness Brandon Bailey said the agency anticipates about $2.3 million in annual savings once fully rolled out and plans to reinvest savings into outreach and IT modernization to support electronic notices and law enforcement access.

Representatives of Enterprise Rent-A-Car (Mark Chilcott) supported the bill, saying the decal replacement process imposes operational burdens on rental companies with large fleets. Local officials raised concerns about whether the electronic data-sharing system would continue to provide the information that commissioners of the revenue and treasurers use for property tax and licensing purposes; DMV testified that it already provides vehicle registration and garaging data electronically to local officials and that the bill would not change that electronic access or revenue impacts.

A motion to report the bill carried on a roll call of 8 to 0. Committee members thanked the sponsor for committing to work with localities on clarifications before the bill reaches the full committee.