Auto registration fee rises in October

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Motor vehicle owners will pay $5 more per year and most cell phone users will pay an extra 66 cents a month to boost emergency medical and safety services, under bills Gov. Linda Lingle signed yesterday.

The $5 increase in the state motor vehicle registration fee, which begins Oct. 1, will raise nearly $5.2 million a year to pay for additional emergency medical services.

The law also appropriates $2.2 million — which will be reimbursed to the state when enough fees are collected — to help expand services in areas such as O'ahu's Leeward Coast, including Makakilo; urban Honolulu; the Kahalu'u-Ka'a'awa area; the Kihei/Wailea area of Maui; and the Big Island's Hawaiian Ocean View Estates.

The surcharge of 66 cents per month for cell phones, which began yesterday, would raise about $5.9 million a year to pay for an enhanced 911 system that would help public safety officials find callers.

Such technology, which would be set up by wireless providers and county public safety agencies, could help find lost hikers and elderly people who are disoriented, as well as people who have been injured, Lingle said. She said Hawai'i joins 36 other states that have enhanced 911 systems.

Police Lt. Charles Chong said the locator technology will save time in helping people and will save lives. He said half of all 911 calls are made from cell phones.

Cell phones that are government-issued and those with prepaid connections would be exempt from the charge.

The governor also signed a bill authorizing the state Department of Human Services to provide state-financed medical assistance for low-income pregnant legal immigrants who are at least 19 years old and entered the United States on or after Aug. 22, 1996.

That assistance is estimated to cost $400,000.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.