HB1034 amends SDCL §32-5-127 to change the fees charged when decals or license plates are sent to a motor vehicle owner through the mail. The amendment specifies a charge of $2.50 for a decal or set of decals and $12.00 for a license plate or set of plates; the statutory text also contains an unexplained fragment reading "and seven dollars and fifty," creating a drafting ambiguity.
The change is narrow in scope but practical in effect: it increases the per-item surcharge owners pay for mailed registration materials and obliges the department or county treasurer to collect the amounts. That raises revenue and administrative adjustments for county treasurer offices, and it shifts a small additional cost onto motorists who use mail delivery rather than in-person pickup or alternate delivery arrangements.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill amends SDCL §32-5-127 to set specific mailed-item charges: $2.50 per decal or set of decals and $12.00 per license plate or set of plates, to be collected by the department or county treasurer when those items are mailed to the owner. The statute appears to replace prior mailed-fee language with these amounts.
Who It Affects
Directly affected are motor vehicle owners who receive decals or plates by mail, county treasurer offices and the Department of Revenue/DMV that collect and remit these fees, and private vendors or mail contractors who handle production and delivery. Title agents and dealers who arrange mailed plates will feel the operational impact as well.
Why It Matters
Although dollar amounts are small per transaction, the change increases recurring costs for drivers who rely on mailed deliveries and requires administrative updates to collection systems and receipts. The bill’s drafting ambiguity also creates an implementation risk that county treasurers and the department will need to resolve before routine enforcement.
More articles like this one.
A weekly email with all the latest developments on this topic.
What This Bill Actually Does
HB1034 is a narrowly focused statutory amendment that changes the surcharge charged when a motor vehicle decal or license plate is mailed to an owner. The statute names the entity responsible for collection (the department or county treasurer) and then lists two fee items: one for decals and one for plates.
The amendment supplies numeric amounts for those items rather than leaving the charge at the prior language.
Operationally, the change means county treasurer offices and the Department of Revenue must update payment screens, receipts, and internal accounting codes so the new amounts appear on invoices and payment records. Where systems currently calculate a different mailed-fee, agencies will have to push software or manual adjustments and retrain clerks who process registrations and mailings.The bill does not specify how the additional revenue should be allocated—whether to a special account for postage and handling, retained by counties, or deposited to the state general fund—so existing collection and distribution rules will control unless another statute assigns the dollars.
The amendment also contains an unexplained textual fragment ("and seven dollars and fifty") that creates real ambiguity about whether a second decal-related fee was intended; that drafting error will likely require a technical correction or agency guidance to avoid inconsistent application.Practically, owners who receive mailed items will see higher per-item charges; for high-volume registrants or fleets, the per-transaction increase compounds. The change could also encourage more owners to opt for in-person pickup or different delivery options if those remain cheaper, producing small shifts in customer behavior that county treasurers and vendors should anticipate.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill amends South Dakota Codified Law §32-5-127—the statute governing additional registration fees charged when items are mailed to a vehicle owner.
It sets the mailed fee for a decal or set of decals at $2.50 per decal or set when mailed to the owner.
It sets the mailed fee for a license plate or set of plates at $12.00 per plate or set when mailed to the owner.
The department or county treasurer remains the entity required to collect the mailed fees at the point of registration or issuance.
The statutory text includes an unexplained fragment—"and seven dollars and fifty"—creating ambiguity that will likely require a technical amendment or administrative clarification before uniform enforcement.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
Every bill we cover gets an analysis of its key sections.
Amend mailed-item fee statute
This single-section amendment rewrites the clause that imposes additional charges when registration materials are mailed. It replaces prior language with enumerated fee amounts and preserves the collection obligation by the department or county treasurer. For practitioners, this is not a new power but a numeric update that triggers downstream administrative work: fee tables, cashier scripts, and accounting entries will need to be updated to reflect the new amounts.
Decal mailed-fee defined
Subsection (1) sets the mailed decal charge to $2.50 per decal or set of decals. The provision is written to apply per decal or per set, which covers both single and multi-decal issuances. However, the text also contains a stray fragment ("and seven dollars and fifty") that interrupts the clause; agencies must decide whether that fragment is surplus/draft error or indicates a separate fee tier. The lack of clarity could produce inconsistent practices unless the legislature or department issues a correction or interpretive guidance.
License plate mailed-fee defined
Subsection (2) establishes a $12.00 charge per license plate or set of plates when the plates are mailed to the owner. That amount is a straightforward per-plate surcharge for mailed delivery. County treasurers and the DMV will need to ensure their fee schedules, online checkout flows, and mailed-instruction materials reflect that $12 charge for mailed plates so customers and clerks are not surprised.
This bill is one of many.
Codify tracks hundreds of bills on Transportation across all five countries.
Explore Transportation in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- County treasurer offices – They collect the new fees and can recover more of the postage and handling costs associated with mailing decals and plates; increased per-item revenue can reduce subsidies for mailed deliveries.
- Department of Revenue/DMV – The department gains clearer statutory fee amounts to include in fee tables and may avoid absorbing mailing costs if fees were previously undersized.
- Vendors and mail contractors – If the state or counties pass through mailing charges more accurately, contract reimbursements and billing reconciliation are simpler, reducing underpayment disputes.
Who Bears the Cost
- Motor vehicle owners who receive mailed decals or plates – They face higher out‑of‑pocket fees, a regressive impact on low-income households and those who cannot pick up items in person (e.g., rural residents, people with mobility challenges).
- County treasurer offices (implementation burden) – Although they collect the fees, treasurer offices will incur short-term programming, training, and customer‑service costs to implement the new amounts and to handle questions about the drafting ambiguity.
- Dealers, title agents, and third-party processors – Entities that arrange mailed plates or decals on behalf of customers will need to update pricing disclosures and payment workflows, and may face increased customer friction during the transition.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is straightforward: the bill seeks to make mailed delivery financially self-sustaining by raising per-item charges, but it does so through a flat surcharge that disproportionately burdens motorists who cannot pick up plates in person—and it leaves critical implementation details (allocation of revenue and a drafting ambiguity) unresolved, forcing agencies to choose between conservative interpretation, immediate technical fixes, or uneven local practices.
The amendment is substantively minimal—just a change in dollar amounts—but it raises several practical and policy questions. First, the statute does not specify how the additional revenue is to be allocated; without an express earmark, the treatment of the funds will follow existing appropriation and accounting rules, which may not reimburse counties or the department proportionally for actual mailing costs.
Second, the presence of the stray phrase "and seven dollars and fifty" introduces legal uncertainty. Is it a drafting remnant from a prior version, an intended intermediate fee tier, or simply a typographical error?
Agencies applying the statute will need to decide whether to treat that fragment as surplus language, seek an immediate technical fix from the legislature, or issue a rule or memo to explain the department's interpretation.
Finally, the bill does not address equity or alternatives for people who rely on mailed delivery for legitimate reasons. A flat per-item surcharge is regressive: it takes a larger share of income from low-income drivers than from wealthier ones.
The legislative record and text contain no mitigating provisions (waivers, reduced rates for low-income residents, or subsidized mail for remote counties), so the policy choice to internalize mailing costs via a flat surcharge stands without offsetting measures. Those tensions—administrative clarity, revenue allocation, and distributional fairness—are the operational issues that will determine whether the change is a clean housekeeping update or a source of recurring disputes.
Try it yourself.
Ask a question in plain English, or pick a topic below. Results in seconds.