Paul Sassone

It’s bad enough that the Illinois budget battle is critically injuring education and vital social services for children, and Illinois’ poor, ill, hungry and homeless.

But now the fight has claimed a victim close to home: Me.

My license plate expires at the end of March. I always renew it by email after the state sends me a notice months in advance.

You may remember — though I didn’t — that Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White announced last September that he was suspending sending out these notices until Gov. Bruce Rauner and the legislature passed a budget.

Suspending these notices would save $450,000 a month in postage, White estimated.

Approximately 800,000 reminders were being sent out each month.

What has been the result of suspending notification?

License plate renewals are down 20 to 30 percent in the last couple of months, which has created many individual budget problems.

There is a $20 fine for renewing a license plate  more than 30 days late. And driving without an up-to-date license is a ticketable offense.

I received an email notice March 5 that not only does my license plate expire by the end of March, my car must have an emissions test by then, also.

The catch is that I can’t renew my license plate until my car passes the emissions test. As an officially handicapped driver it is difficult for me to get my car to an emissions testing station, wait in line and then drive back home.

I tried to email the secretary of state’s office, but my computer kept telling me it couldn’t connect with the secretary of state’s server.

So, I tried calling.

I can hear you chuckling from here.

Right, nothing but a constant busy signal.

So, I’m not sure when, or how, I am going to renew my license plate or get my car an emissions test.

If I can’t ever connect with the secretary of state’s server, then I have to go in person to a secretary of state facility to renew my license plate, which creates a whole other set of transportation problems.

But, at least my woes are in a good cause — Gov. Rauner’s unwavering commitment to tort reform and the destruction of unions as preconditions for a budget.

–Budget impasse creating license-plate renewal woes–