Charlottesville Police have been ticketing vehicles in the City with Virginia license plates that do not display current vehicle decals since the annual Jan. 31 deadline passed.
Ticketing of vehicles lacking decals or with expired decals is typically higher at the beginning of the year, City Treasurer Jennifer Brown said.
Some University students claim that the City's decal enforcement is inconsistent and confusing for them. Third-year College student Karen Otto, a Virginia Beach resident, received a $35 ticket last Tuesday on Jefferson Park Avenue for failure to display a Charlottesville decal on her windshield.
Otto said she is contesting the ticket and still is trying to understand the commonwealth law concerning vehicle decals.
"Virginia Beach doesn't have vehicle decals," Otto said. "When I called the Virginia Beach City Treasurer's office, they said that Charlottesville is the only locality that has given them problems with decals."
Otto also said she was concerned that the ticketing may be hard to avoid in the future because City Police do not run license plates to check residence status before ticketing.
"When I asked the Charlottesville Treasurer's office what I could do in the future to avoid being ticketed, the woman said, 'Maybe you could write a note and put it in your windshield that says you don't need a sticker because you're from Virginia Beach,'" Otto said.
Both the City and Albemarle County follow the same decal cycle, with the sale of vehicle decals beginning on Jan. 1 of every year and requiring vehicles to display current decals by Jan. 31. According to the City Web site, vehicle decal applications are automatically sent to residents who pay personal property taxes in the City or County. Decals for typical automobiles cost $28.50.
College students are subject to several exceptions to the decal requirement. Out-of-state students must adhere to the decal requirements outlined in their home states, many of which do not have decal systems comparable to those in Virginia.
In 1992 the General Assembly passed legislation concerning whether in-state college students should buy their vehicle decals in their home locality or where they attend school, Brown said.
If a student's vehicle is registered under the student's name in Virginia, the student should purchase a vehicle decal in the locality of the student's legal residence.
On the other hand, if a student's vehicle is registered or co-registered under the name of a student's parents in Virginia, the locality where the student should purchase a decal is determined by the location where the vehicle is primarily parked or garaged, said Robert Walters, Albemarle County chief of finance department and taxation.
The Virginia General Assembly enacted the decal requirement in the 1950s in order to ensure that personal property taxes are paid and for easy identification of a vehicle's home locality, Brown said.
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