While the state of Minnesota currently has an estimated 17 billion dollar budget surplus, the cost of renewing your license tabs could soon be going way up.

The Minnesota Legislature Is Working on Passing a Two-Year State Budget This Year

The Minnesota Legislature is currently in the middle of its 2023 session, and one of the major things state lawmakers have to accomplish before the session adjourns in May is passing a new two-year state budget.

While both political parties will likely offer up various budget proposals, Gov. Walz has already released his proposed budget, and one of the most talked-about parts of his proposal was a provision that would offer up tax rebates of $1,000 dollars to certain Minnesotans.

Why the Cost of Your Vehicle License Plate Tabs in Minnesota Could Skyrocket

This is good, seeing as you'll likely need that extra grand if you drive a car in the Bold North. Because buried in the fine print of his proposal was also a provision that would *increase* the cost of renewing your Minnesota automobile registration and license plate tabs. A lot.

Get our free mobile app

This FOX 9 TV story has the specifics:

The tab fee for a brand-new car would be based on 160% of the MSRP, up from the 100 percent under current law. For a $30,000 vehicle, the fee would increase from the current $395 to a whopping $626.

FOX 9 also noted that the fee increase would get smaller as your vehicle ages, as it currently does. And for vehicles at least 10 years old, the registration fee would change to $30, which is $5 less than the current law.

Of course, your local municipality can also add extra fees to your registration, making renewing your tabs even MORE expensive here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. For instance, Olmsted County, along with 53 other counties, also conveniently charges you a $10 'wheelage tax' as well.

Minnesotans Pay Way More in Vehicle Registration Fees Than Other States

If you think that seems like a LOT of money, you're not alone. Especially when you contrast those massive Minnesota registration fees with the flat $85 fee the state of Wisconsin currently charges no matter which type of vehicle you drive! (There are $75  hybrid and $100 electric vehicle surcharges in Wisconsin as well.)

Of course, those increases right now are just *proposed*, they haven't been included in any bill passed by the state Legislature (because the state House and Senate haven't passed a budget bill yet.) But it'll definitely be something to keep an eye on as lawmakers work on and eventually pass a state budget later this spring.

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

More From B105