PHOENIX — Some Arizona seniors could be getting a free ride — literally.

 On a 3-2 vote Tuesday, the Senate Transportation Committee approved a measure to let some seniors register one of their vehicles without paying the annual registration fee. That could save those who qualify hundreds of dollars a year.

 Not all seniors would qualify. They would have to meet income restrictions, a figure that currently computes out to $30,576 a year for a single person and $38,220 for a couple.

 And they would have to own their own homes: Renters would be ineligible, even if their earnings were a lot less.

 But Sen. Jay Tibshraeny, R-Chandler, who is the sponsor of the measure, said he sees SB 1020 as just a first step: He wants to eventually reduce what all Arizonans pay to register their vehicles.

 Current law pegs the annual registration fee to the value of the vehicle.

 For example, a new car that costs $25,000 is subject to a first-year tax of $420. By the second year, when it is worth less, the levy drops to $363.

 About 77 percent of the revenues are divided up among cities and counties who can use the money for any purpose they want. The balance goes to the state Department of Transportation.

 Legislative budget analysts figure if Tibshraeny’s bill becomes law, the loss to the state would be about $1 million a year.

 It is that loss which makes the fate of the measure uncertain at best.

 “We have a crisis in (the) shortage of roads and the inability to pay to maintain them,’’ said Sen. Pamela Gorman, R-Anthem, one of the two committee members who voted against the bill. Gorman sai she cannot support any measure which actually reduces the available cash.

 That shortage figured in Monday’s State of the State speech by Gov. Janet Napolitano.

 She said Arizona already is playing “catch up’’ in meeting the state’s rapid population growth. And the governor asked lawmakers to put some sort of measure before voters, this year or next, to actually raise additional taxes to finance the new construction.

 But Tibshraeny said the seniors still deserve a break because they’re not the source of the problem.

 “I believe they are using the roads a lot less than the other drivers,’’ he said. And the senator said that $1 million loss to the state is minimal.

 

Eligibility would be limited to those who already qualify under a

 constitutional provision which allows seniors who meet income

 restrictions to have the taxable value of their homes frozen,

 essentially protecting them from tax hikes due to rising property

 values. Tibshraeny said linking his legislation to that property

 tax limitation precludes the need to create a new bureaucracy to

 deal with the vehicle tax limit.

 But in doing so, Tibshraeny acknowledged he automatically

 eliminated anyone who doesn’t own a home. In fact, even

 homeowners who have been in their houses for less than two years

 also do not qualify.

 SB 1020 does not have any limit on the value of the vehicle which

 can qualify for the tax exemption. But Tibshraeny said anyone who

 might be driving around in a $60,000 luxury car probably would

 not meet the income restrictions.

 SB 1020 now goes to the Senate Committee on Public Safety and

 Human Services.