New Laws Take Effect Across State

By Charles Bassett, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- July 1 marks the start of the new fiscal year in the state and some new laws are now in effect.

One of the biggest could cost you if you don't get your car tags renewed on time. Under the old law it cost you a quarter a day for every day you were late renewing your tags. The state will now tack an extra 75 cents, and it can quickly add up.

At the Northwest Tag Agency people are already coming in trying to get their tags renewed by July 1.

"We've had a lot of customers come in on Monday and Tuesday hearing about the new law change on TV," Beverly Triplett Morgan with the Northwest Tag Agency said.

They're trying to beat a new law that will now charge you $1 for every day you're late renewing. The new late fees stop accruing once they reach $100. The old cap was only $25.

"Let's say they waited until October, they have all of July to buy their tag, then they will have August as their grace month," Morgan said. "But starting September 1, it will be $1 a day penalty until it reaches $100."

State Senator Cliff Aldridge sponsored the bill calling for the late fees to be raised.

"We just felt like we needed to increase that to create an incentive for people to do what the law requires and get them to pay their tags on time," Aldridge said.

Twenty-five cents of the late fees go to the state Tax Commission. Another quarter stays with the tag agency. And 50 cents will go to the Rural Economic Action Plan. This program helps rural communities in the state pay for infrastructure projects. The extra tag fees are expected to generate about $14.5 million for the program.

"We're not trying to make it miserable for people, we're not trying to kill everybody," Aldridge said. "Hopefully it's a good enough incentive that everybody pays their tag on time."

If you reached your cap under the old law, you will not be charged additional fees under the new law.

Some of the other laws taking affect include sex offenders are now prohibited from being ice cream truck vendors and the maximum sentence for kidnapping has been raised from 10 years to 20 years.