MEMPHIS, TN -
(WMC-TV) - Not having to wait in line for vehicle inspection has long been considered a perk to living in Shelby County. But if the state takes over the inspection process, those lines will get a lot longer and it will cost you.
The process of inspecting your car in Memphis has been going on since the 1990s and it has not been very popular.
"I think our government gets too ridiculous when it comes to air quality as it does now," said Bruce Klemm, who lives in Bartlett.
But the feds mandate an inspection process to improve air quality in Shelby County.
Memphis usually pays the bill but last year the city council passed a resolution to cut funding hoping Shelby County's would pick it up.
"I'm tired of Memphis on occasion have to bear the brunt of 100 percent of the solutions to county problems. Auto inspection is one of them," said Jim Strickland, Memphis City Council.
Shelby County said it will not fund the program in hopes the state would take it over.
If that happens, everyone living in Shelby County could be forced to have their car or truck inspected.
"In every city and county in Tennessee, where the state has done it, they make everyone in the county go through the inspections and they charge about $10 to do it," said Strickland.
Right now, the vehicle inspection program is costing Memphis about $3 million every year and it employs about 50 people. The resolution that passed last year would have funding cut by the end of June.
"I'd say it's good because it's about time they put the county into something instead of having the city go through it," said Tim Webster, who lives in Memphis.
and when it comes to vehicle inspection everybody has an opinion.
"If they are going to make us go through it they ought to make it where it doesn't take as long. I have heard of people having to wait hours in line," said Klemm.
The Memphis City Council will discuss this program more in-depth next Tuesday.
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