Editorial: Impact Day

While most Nevadans observe the traditional holidays — Memorial Day this weekend, for instance — the folks at the Department of Motor Vehicles have apparently added an additional celebration to the calendar. It’s relatively obscure — sort of like Festivus — and is known as “Impact Day.”

Festivities for the fifth annual “Impact Day” took place on May 17. That’s when 20 DMV agents fanned out across Las Vegas in search of garage owners, body shop owners and other dangerous scofflaws who had failed to obtain the proper permits.

In North Las Vegas on that day, Jose Tinoco, owner of Tinoco’s Auto Body, didn’t realize he was about to get run over by the DMV’s “Impact Day” parade. He had business licenses from both the secretary of state’s office and Clark County, but DMV investigators nailed him with a $1,500 citation anyway because he was operating without approval from the agency.

Mr. Tinoco, who opened his shop just two months ago, told Review-Journal reporter Art Marroquin that he didn’t know he needed to register with the department. Who would?

DMV spokesman Kevin Malone points out that the agency has long been involved in licensing automobile-related businesses. The DMV has jurisdiction, he said, “to ensure the abuses in this particular industry are handled by a state agency.”

All this is ostensibly to protect consumers from things such as car dealers that ignore contract law or body shops that low-ball estimates. But is it really necessary for entrepreneurs such as Mr. Tinoco to obtain permission slips from three separate government bureaucracies? At the very least, shouldn’t such licensing requirements be consolidated?

And why not issuing warnings to new proprietors before reaching for the hammer? Let’s remember that garages and body shops also need a whole host of other permits, many environmental related.

Small-business owners routinely complain about the challenges they face navigating bureaucratic red tape. This might serve as Exhibit A.

Nevada continues to be relatively business friendly. But the DMV’s “Impact Day” reveals there’s plenty of room for sensible regulatory reform. Now that would be cause for a state holiday.