Emission test fee in legal limbo

The frequency of emission tests in Salt Lake County will have to be decided before an increased test fee can be considered.

The Salt Lake County Council asked for a legal opinion this past week about whether the emissions testing law, passed this year by the Utah Legislature, requires the County to test vehicles 6 years old and newer every two years or, if they can, test all vehicles every year. If they can test every year, a proposed $7.50 increase for the emission test fee would not be allowed by the law.

The council tabled a decision on both issues until they get the legal opinion, which they expect to receive by the end of the month.

The fee increase has been requested by emission testing center owners, who say that they would lose significant amounts of money if newer cars were only tested every other year. The additional $7.50 fee would help them stave off those losses.

The idea that the County could continue to require the test every year, however, intrigued some council members during a brief discussion.

"Maybe we think that the air is bad and we want it every year to make sure we're breathing good," Councilman Randy Horiuchi said.

Councilman Steve Harmsen, however, wanted the council to avoid raising the fee and follow the Legislature's lead by only requiring the tests every two years.

"We need to put the idea of raising emission costs on hold," he said. "We need to decide whether to do emissions every two years, and I think we should that today."

Barbara Thomas, chairwoman of the Salt Lake Valley Board of Health, said the board decided June 5 that the increased fee was unnecessary because actual costs for a test were only about 25 percent of the current fee.

"This is a fee that has more than met the need," Thomas said. "It was high to begin with, to cover the equipment costs, and the equipment has been paid for."

Michael Duncan, president of Just Emissions in Midvale, said Thomas' claim that the costs were only a quarter of the fee was "bogus information." In reality, centers lose money on every test, primarily because the equipment is from a government-sponsored supplier that provides very poor technical help and they are charged $2.1 million for equipment that should have cost less than $500,000.

"The equipment is junk that they forced us to buy," Duncan said. "She's not only wrong, she's uninformed."

Duncan said that the $7.50 fee increase would make the tests profitable for centers by only a few cents per test.

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