A Louisiana House panel detoured a bid to do away with the state’s requirement for motor vehicle inspections.

The House Transportation Committee voted 9-5 last month to send the proposal – HB1231 – to the House Appropriations Committee, where the bill sponsor predicted it would be killed because the Louisiana State Police would lose an estimated $14.6 million by doing away with the annual inspections on personal and commercial vehicles.

The sponsor, Rep. Mike Futrell, R-Baton Rouge, told The New Orleans Times-Picayune he doesn’t think his bill has a chance in appropriations, “but it will send a message” that inspections are not needed.

Futrell called the annual inspections “a silly government fee creating a tag.” He said 29 other states had eliminated similar inspections, which include tests of brakes, horns, headlights and turn signals. Futrell said there was no proven connection between the inspections and safety.

“It is a program not needed. It is annoying to our citizens. This will free our people from the bondage of that little sticker on your windshield,” he said.

State Police Lt. Dewayne White told the newspaper the measure generates about $11 million to buy cars, guns, ammunition and other supplies for troopers.

“But Mr. Futrell is right,” White said. “There has been no apparent rise in crashes,” in the states that have repealed their inspection process.