We ended the sticker scam: HB649 (2025) – New Hampshire legislation

Car inspections are a scam!  Help us get rid of them this year!

Are you sick of being forced each year to have your car inspected—to spend $40 or $50 only to be told by a mechanic that your car needs hundreds or thousands of dollars of suspicious repairs before he’ll issue that windshield sticker?  Are you tired of worrying every year that your car is going to be taken hostage by these state-mandated inspections?

The New Hampshire Legislature is considering HB649, which will eliminate these car inspection scams once and for all!  If you want to never have to waste money and endure mechanics holding your car hostage on bogus repair claims again, join us and help pass this bill!

You can read the bill, sponsored by Rep. Michael Granger, here and check on its status using GenCourtMobile.  You can also read some positive media coverage here.

June 27: The budget passed! The sticker scam is OVER.

The budget passed the House yesterday.  And the Governor just signed it.  Come 2026, the sticker scam is over once and for all!  Thank you to everyone who made this possible! 

The details

HB649, in its original form, passed the House but was retained by the Senate after no acceptable compromises could be procured.  However, our efforts supporting the bill, and your stories of the endless ripoffs and scams this law allowed, convinced the House GOP to make ending the sticker scam a centerpiece of their agenda for this year.  And so, an exact copy of HB649 was inserted into the omnibus budget bill, HB2.  This is a common tactic to force the Senate to pass something the House has already passed and really wants.

In the end, our bill survived the budget committee of conference with only one minor change:  Safety inspections will be no more as of January 31, 2026, however the emissions inspections may endure until September 30.  The purpose of this change was to allow the N.H. Dept. of Environmental Services to request a waiver from the EPA regarding the State’s compliance with the Clean Air Act, of which OBD-II checks (the “check wallet light”) had been a part.  If the Feds grant the waiver before September 30, emissions inspections are gone then.  If the Feds do not, emissions inspections are gone on September 30 anyway.  The DES Deputy Commissioner is already working on filing for the waiver.

Ticketed for an inspection violation?

As of this moment, the sticker scam technically continues—for another 218 days.  You can get pulled over and ticketed for having an expired inspection sticker.  And we’ve heard multiple first-hand reports that some police departments are making frantic last-ditch efforts to enforce the sticker scam.  This is entirely pointless and wasteful, as towns do not even get to keep the ticket revenue (RSA 260:23).  If you get pulled over and ticketed, let us know and we will assist you fighting the ticket!

A special thank you to…

We would like to thank all our friends in the State House for making this happen—

• Our prime sponsor, Rep. Michael Granger, and cosponsors Reps. Juliet Harvey-Bolia, Shane Sirois, and Matt Sabourin;
• House Majority Leader Rep. Jason Osborne, who made this a top issue to win on this year, and provided the saving amendment at the HB2 Committee of Conference;
• Rep. Henry Giasson, who gave the floor speech which helped us cross the aisle and bring 29 Democrats to vote for our bill;
• Reps. John Sellers and Matthew Coker, who have fought this fight for years on behalf of their low-income and elderly constituents;
• Rep. Tom Walsh, who as House Transportation Committee Chair, was convinced to support our bill after hearing from so many constituents;
• Reps. Ted Gorski and Steve Smith, also of the Transportation Committee, who also changed their mind this year and supported repealing the inspection program;
• Rep. Charlie St. Clair, also of the Transportation Committee, who has been a strong supporter of ending the sticker scam for years;
• Rep. Tom Mannion, who did statistical research for us on road safety and insurance rates, to help fend off much opposition on those grounds;
• Hon. Leah Cushman, whose bill last year to make tiny fixes to the inspection regime, which was killed by the Senate, gave us the momentum and determination to demand a full repeal;
  
  
• Sen. Keith Murphy, who introduced a similar bill as a rep years ago, and was our main supporter in the Senate, who ultimately prevented a very bad amendment from passing;
• Sen. Tim McGough, who wrote the best of the compromise amendments for the Senate Transportation Committee;
• Sen. Victoria Sullivan, who along with the above senators voted against retaining the bill;
• Sens. Sharon Carson and James P. Gray, who—after the Senate opposed our original bill—nevertheless supported pushing our original bill through the budget conference committee;
  
  
• Jeremy J. Olson and Steve Zemanek, who coördinated all the grassroots efforts, email, social media, flyering campaigns, and this website content;
• Jason Hennessey, Ph.D., who provided a plethora of statistics at committee hearings;
• Brian Chase, a retired State Police sergeant and expert in accident investigation and reconstruction, who provided persuasive testimony as to the uselessness of inspections and the scams so many inspection stations run;
• Gaston G., who relentlessly posted our content and favorable news articles all over social media;
• David M., Derek V., Reinita, and others who helped out with flyering all over New Hampshire;
• Derek P. and Liam C. who organized the AFP-NH calling parties for us;
• Fellow liberty organizations Americans for Prosperity – New Hampshire, Citizens Alliance New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, and Young Americans for Liberty who made phone calls and sent emails and text messages supporting our bill;
• The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, who generously donated $500 to our cause;
• Neil’s Laconia Garage, a licensed inspection station, whose owner nevertheless came out in favor of our bill;
• Our 600+ grassroots activists on our mailing list;
• The 300+ New Hampshire citizens who used our email forms to contact their representatives and senators with their stories of ripoffs and scams; and
• Countless other advocates and activists we’re probably not even aware of out there!

June 26: The vote is TODAY!

The House and Senate vote on the budget (HB2) today.  HB649 is in the HB2 amendment #2025-2871CofC at §§ 244–256.  The entire inspection regime except for emissions is gone on 2026-01-31.  Emissions will be repealed no later than 2026-09-30.  (The date for this section was extended to give NHDES time to submit required information to the EPA.) 

There have been rumors circulating that the Governor would veto the budget (over other items), but as of last night, a deal has been allegedly struck.  The budget bill itself is expected to pass the House and Senate today.  However, the deal is going to be submitted as an amendment via an additional bill, HB282, which if—it fails—may yet result in the Governor vetoing the entire budget. 

So, if you want to see the sticker scam gone once and for all, please keep contacting the House, Senate, and Governor! 

June 26: The budget MUST PASS!

The bill passed the N.H. House 212–143, stalled in the Senate, but was added to HB2 by the budget conference committee!  Your efforts convinced the Senate members of the committee to leave it in the budget as we wrote it!  But now, we need to get the House and Senate to pass the budget and the Governor to sign it!

If you want to eliminate the sticker scam once and for all—contact the House, Senate, and Governor using our form!  In particular, the Governor is threatening to veto the entire budget because pension increases for state workers and school aid to Manchester were not included.  So be sure to let her know how important passing this budget is so we can end the sticker scam! 

June 19: Our bill is as-is in the budget!

HB649 exactly as written is now in the budget bill (HB2), with but one tiny addition to give N.H. until September 2026 to get a waiver from the EPA on emissions rules.  Thank you to Rep. Jason Osborne for making this one final change to get our bill through!  And thank you to everyone who called and emailed their representatives to make this happen!

June 16–19: Last chance to end the sticker scam!

The text of our bill to eliminate the sticker scam is now present in the House version of HB2, the New Hampshire budget!  But the Senate version of the budget is trying to eliminate it.  So now, the budget goes to a “committee of conference” where the House and the Senate negotiate and try to reach common ground on this and other differences in the two versions of the budget.

If you want to eliminate coercive car inspections once and for all, let the budget conference committee know!  Keep HB649 as originally written in the budget!  (Specifically, this means keeping sections 362–372 of HB2 as amended by House amendment 2025-1488h and opposing sections 253–274 of HB2 as amended by the Senate amendment 2025-2637s.)

We need you to do two things if you want to end the sticker scam!

1. Email the entire conference committee using our form!

2. Call each of the conference committee members!  Below, they are listed in order of importance—

   • Sen. James P. Gray (R) — 603-271-4980 (office), 603-332-7144 (home).  He is on the fence and may be the decisive swing vote in our favor!

   • Sen. Sharon Carson (R) — 603-271-3266.  She has been opposed to our bill but her party in the House supports it.

   • Sen. Cindy Rosenwald (D) — 603-271-7587.  The Democrats claim to care about low-income voters but they have opposed our bill.  Let her know how many people support ending the regressive “sticker tax”!

   • Rep. Mary Jane Wallner (D) — 603-225-5249.  Same as Rosenwald.

   • Rep. Joe Sweeney (R) — 603-327-7184.  He voted for our bill already.

   • Rep. José Cambrils (R) — 603-731-8287.  He voted for our bill already.

   • Rep. Dan McGuire (R) — 603-782-4918.  He voted for our bill already.

   • Rep. Ken Weyler (R) — Please do not call; he has suffered a recent family loss.  He voted for our bill already.

May 15: Senate Floor vote

The full Senate voted on HB649 today and unfortunately decided to “re-refer” the bill to the Commerce Committee.  The bad news is this means nothing passed today, and we still have a lot of work to do.

The good news is our bill is not dead:  This was a tactical move to kill a very bad floor amendment that would have otherwise passed.

The committee amendment that we were promised failed to materialize.  Late in the day today, what was supposed to be that amendment was finally published, and it was so watered down that it was essentially useless.  It did repeal most of the safety rules and eliminate rulemaking authority.  And it even created a proper appeals process to deal with unscrupulous mechanics—something we didn’t even know they were considering.  However, it did not eliminate emissions or "check wallet" light failures and it did not switch us to biennial inspections.  It also included provisions that would make things easier only for new car owners, which is just a handout to the car dealerships (and was likely put in their by the senators who receive thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the NHADA).

We learned that our supporters in the Senate were prepared to call out this garbage amendment in a floor fight, and if successful, propose a second floor amendment bringing back the omitted items above—or, failing that, just go all out on the original bill to get a roll call vote—thus putting all our enemies on the record.  So, moments before the bill was to be heard, Commerce Chairman Dan Innis decided the solution was to send the bill back to the committee so they could work on it further.

The motion to re-refer was made and passed 19–3.  Sens. Keith Murphy, Tim McGough, and Victoria Sullivan voted against the motion.  Sen. Donovan Fenton recused himself.  Sen. Kevin Avard was absent.  All others voted for it and it passed.

We would like to thank our pro-liberty senators for voting against the motion and trying to bring forward the better amendment we were promised. However, at this juncture, we are not interpreting those who voted for the motion to necessarily be our opponents.  Innis was correct that the amendment was nonviable and he wants the committee to work something out that can actually pass. 

The important thing is our bill is not dead and we still have a lot of work to do.  We’ll be posting more updates soon on the next steps we need to take to end the sticker scam once and for all.

May 13: Senate Commerce Committee vote

We did it again!  HB649 will hit the whole Senate with a motion of ought to pass with amendment!

The Senate Commerce committee held their hearing today, and after much debate, the bill came out of committee 3–3, with no official recommendation.  The committee chairman, Sen. Dan Innis, proposed an amendment which he will present on the Senate floor.

The amendment does not give us a full repeal, but gets rid of some of the most onerous issues we’ve enountered with the sticker scam.  It—

• Removes the OBD and emissions requirements;
• Reduces the safety inspection to things that are truly safety issues (e.g., tires and brakes), eliminating the items that are used most commonly to rip motorists off; and
• Switches us to a biennial rather than annual requirement.

We of course would like to see our original bill pass as written, but a total repeal does not have sufficient support in the Senate this year.  This amendment however, gets us halfway there, so we are supporting it and ask all our supporters to call and email the Senate and do the same.  Rest assured we will be back again next year, and the year after if need be, to end the sticker scam for good!

Finally, we would like to thank Senators Tim McGough, Keith Murphy, and Chairman Dan Innis for making this happen.  Senators Reardon and Perkins-Kwoka (sitting in for Fenton, who recused himself) voted against all the committee amendments, and Senator Ricciardi also presented a bad amendment, which failed, and then she voted against Innis’ amendment. 

April 1 & 8: Senate Commerce Committee hearing

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Senate Commerce Committee hearing.  So many people came out to this hearing that they had to split it across two days!  The committee should be voting on the bill early next week.  We’ll keep you apprised as to how that goes!

We would also like to thank—

• Americans for Prosperity – New Hampshire for organizing phonebanks to ask constituents to reach out to Sens. Ricciardi and Innis;

• Citizens Alliance New Hampshire and Young Americans for Liberty for sending over three thousand text messages to voters in Sen. Ricciardi’s district;

• Our prime sponsor, Rep. Michael Granger;

• Our other champions in the House, including House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, Rep. Henry Giasson, Rep. Tom Mannion, Rep. John Sellers, and many more!

March 6: Our bill passed 212–143!

HB649 passed the House on March 6 on a 212–143 vote!

Thank you to everyone who called and emailed their reps, or used the form we set up to email all 400 of them.  Some reps said they received over 600 emails and it was the largest email campaign this year.  Our efforts definitely made the difference!

The bill now moves onto the Senate, where it will have its first public hearing in the next few weeks.  We’ll be in touch again as soon as we launch that campaign!

We did it!  HB649 will hit the whole House with an ought to pass motion!

Our bill was voted on by the Transportation Committee today.  After a debate that went on for half an hour, where multiple motions on the bill were defeated 8–8, the bill will go to the whole House with no official recommendation.  However, Chairman Thomas Walsh was in favor of the bill, so the first motion on the House floor will be ought to pass.

We don’t have a date for the whole House vote yet, but expect it in a week or two.  Until then, here is how you can help out!

Some key takeaways

Our email campaign worked.  Three representatives on the committee admitted they were personally opposed to HB649, but after receiving an “overwhelming” outpouring of support from their constituents, they decided to vote YES on our bill.

The committee is tired of listening to lobbyists and corrupt special interests.  Chairman Walsh recounted a history of trying to fix the current inspection regime—for 12 years now—during which he has met continual resistance from industry lobbyists and mechanics profiting from the inspection scam.  He pointed out that the contractor that supplies the test equipment, Gordon-Darby, has outright refused to implement 2018 changes to the law concerning superficial rust.  Unreasonable resistance to 2024’s HB1637 by N.H. Automobile Dealers Association lobbyists and self-serving mechanics finally pushed him over the edge.  He now opposes the program and supported our bill.

The bill has bipartisan support.  From the exec session, it’s apparent that our strongest supporters are Henry Giasson (R–Hillsborough 29) and Charlie St. Clair (D–Belknap 5), and of course Chairman Walsh (R–Merrimack 10).  Conservatives support this bill because it gets the State out of private business.  Liberals support this bill because it’s a regressive tax and hurts the poor the most.

What next? How can I help out?

First, if you haven’t already, sign up for alerts here!  We’ll be in touch!

The next step is a floor vote by the whole House of Representatives.  This will take place today.  If you want to end this scam, your reps need to hear from you!  Here's what you can do—

1. Call and email your own representatives and urge them to vote YES on HB649.  Be sure to indicate you are one of their constituents!  If you don’t know who your reps are, you can find out here.

2. Email the entire House and urge them to vote YES on HB649.  You can now do this using the form here. Today is the floor vote, so it is less likely they will see anymore emails.  Call them if you can!

Remember, we flipped three committee member votes by barraging them with stories of how corrupt car inspections are.  Every single representative now needs to hear this!

Email tips

• Subject.  In the subject line, state the bill number (HB649) and that you support the bill.  A subject line as simple as “Vote YES on HB649” or “Please support HB649” will suffice.  If you are a constituent (you live in the rep’s district), include that in the subject!

• Length.  State up front that you support the bill.  Again state you are a constituent if you are one.  Your email does not need to be long or detailed.  It just needs to get the point across—you want your rep to vote YES on HB649.

• A personal story.  However, if you have a personal story of how car inspections have negatively impacted your life—please do include that in your email!  Our lawmakers need to know how badly these mandatory car inspections hurt their constituents!

• BCC tip.  If you want to contact the entire committee in one email, put all their addresses in the BCC line.  When reps are emailed all at once, some can be hesitant to “reply all” due to concerns over holding an improper meeting under N.H.’s right-to-know law (RSA 91-A).  BCCing all the reps at once avoids this.

Flyers

In the next few days, we’ll be hitting the streets with flyers asking ordinary folks to contact their reps and ask them to support HB649.  If you’d like to help out, here (PDF) is the flyer we are distributing.  It prints perfectly in black and white on 8½×11″ paper.

Flyering tips

• Place these on cars parked on the street for maximum efficiency.

• Fold the flyer in half with the top facing outward and place it on the windshield under the driver’s side wiper blade. 

• In particular, look for cars with expired or soon-to-expire inspection stickers.  In the lower-income neighborhoods of our major cities, you will find plenty!  This year’s stickers are red; next year’s are blue.  Any red stickers with a 1, 2, or 3, or any other non-blue stickers, are fair game here.  Note however, a few years ago red was used, so people who have been dodging the inspection scam for a long time could have a red sticker!  The year is printed in smaller numbers at the bottom of the sticker.

• If you visit people’s homes, we recommend you place them in people’s front doors and not on their cars, so as to avoid any misunderstandings.  Political “door-knocking” and “lit-dropping” are well-known campaign strategies during election seasons.

• Don’t venture onto people’s private property if they have a “no trespassing” or “private property” sign, or something else that common sense tells you they want to be left alone.  “No soliciting” signs technically only apply to salesmen and not political activists, whose campaigning is a First Amendment–protected activity, but again we recommend you don’t annoy people.

Why do we want to get rid of car inspections?

• Very few states impose this on their citizens.  Only a handful of states (15 13 11 at last count) require their motorists to deal with safety and emissions inspections.  Many states have neither.  States without inspections show no evidence of increased car accidents due to defective equipment on vehicles.  In the last decade, several states have even eliminated their inspections—and they have shown no decrease in road safety as a result.

• Car inspections are a regressive tax.  You pay the same fee for an inspection ($40–50) whether you drive a Corolla or a Corvette.  Older cars are more likely to fail inspections, and these motorists are the least likely to be able to afford the inspection and the resulting repair bills.

• An opportunity for fraud and abuse.  Who doesn’t have a story of a crooked mechanic holding your car hostage on bogus repair claims?  Who hasn’t been forced to do expensive repairs because the only alternative was driving with an expired sticker?

• Arbitrary, capricious, and unjust.  Car inspections are conducted by private mechanics.  There are standards they are expected to follow (Saf-C 3200), but no two mechanics interpret the rules the same.  Once you take your car in for inspection, you are completely at the mercy of that mechanic’s opinion.  There is no right to get a “second opinion” if you don’t trust him.  There is no legal appeals process if a mechanic refuses to pass your car.

• No evidence justifies it.  There is no evidence that safety inspections correlate with increased motorist safety, with insurance prices, or anything else meaningful.  Insurance rates for example correlate more with state regulatory burden and crime rates.  And crash rates correlate with things like DUIs, not vehicle equipment issues.  Rep. Tom Mannion is compiling a nice spreadsheet regarding this.

Even experts say it’s time for it to go

Here (PDF) is some excellent testimony from Brian Chase, a retired N.H. State Police sergeant and expert in accident investigation and reconstruction.  Some highlights—

• “My professional career of thousands of forensic vehicle inspections has revealed no more than four vehicles which realized component failure—all of which were registered in states mandating a safety inspection program.”

• “There currently exist merely eleven (11) states in the United States which mandate annual vehicle inspections, with New Hampshire being one of the most stringent.”

• “State motor vehicle safety inspection programs have no effect on highway safety and serve solely as a profit means to inspection stations/auto dealers who demand repairs that are unnecessary.”

• “Although inspection station/dealer owners and representatives fight to ensure remarkable income from state inspections, the fact is that statistically state safety inspection programs play no role in reducing fatal crashes.”

• “There is no EPA mandate for the state of New Hampshire for the emissions program in place.”

• “Inspection and Emissions programs are costly, inefficient, inaccurate, and financially detrimental to New Hampshire motorists—especially those low income and elderly residents.”

Media coverage

Government, industry lobby Senate after House vote to end annual vehicle inspections.  Kevin Landrigan, Union Leader, 2025-04-01.

Senate committee hears testimony on bill to eliminate motor vehicle inspections.  Adam Sexton, WMUR, 2025-04-01.

Kevin Landrigan on X:  “State Police, auto dealers, tow shops, insurers, environmental and motor vehicle state staffers turn out to oppose House-passed bill to repeal annual safety inspections for car and truck owners (HB 649).” 2025-04-01.

Fool’s gold on four wheels: Why NH must scrap vehicle inspections.  Brian Labrie, NH Journal, 2025-03-30.

Should Vermont drop annual car inspections?  Cam Smith, WCAX, 2025-03-28.

When is your car inspection due? Maybe never.  David Brooks, Concord Monitor, 2025-03-18.

Ending mandatory vehicle inspections would save Granite Staters tens of millions a year. Andrew Cline, Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, 2025-03-07.

Should New Hampshire continue to require annual vehicle inspections?  Union Leader poll, 2025-03-06.  As of 2025-04-01, the results are 65.2% in favor of eliminating them!

Enemies of both sticker tax freedom and 91-A.  Julie Smith, Granite Grok, 2025-03-07.

New Hampshire House passes bill to eliminate motor vehicle safety inspections.  Marissa Barrett, WMUR, 2025-03-06.

Adam Sexton on X:  “The @NHHouseofReps sends a message, voting 212-143 to eliminate vehicle inspections.  Deputy Speaker Steven Smith:  ‘I’ve tried to work with the industry and they have stopped us at every single turn, and I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.’”  2025-03-06.

This mechanic supports HB 649 to end vehicle inspections.  Neil Trindade, Laconia Daily Sun, 2025-03-04.

The Soapbox: End NH vehicle inspections.  Derek Proulx, Manchester Ink Link, 2025-03-02.

Former NH state police official: Annual vehicle inspections are unnecessary, profit-driven.  Rick Greene, NHPR, 2025-02-21.

New Hampshire bill would eliminate safety inspections for passenger vehicles.  Ross Ketschke, WMUR, 2025-02-14.

Eliminate vehicle inspections in NH.  Rep. John Sellers, Granite Grok, 2025-02-10.  ▰