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Drivers could soon be digging a little deeper in their wallets to register their vehicles.

That's because Illinois state lawmakers want to boost the annual cost of vehicle registration by $1.  Lawmakers hope to raise more than $9 million with the proposed hike.  The money will help the Illinois State Police replace old squad cars.

We checked in with Illinois State Police in Pittsfield, and found out why there's a need for new squad cars.  The post has 34 cars, about 20% of those cars have more than 200,000 miles.  Captain Patrick Staples with the Illinois State Police tells us his fleet goes in for maintenance quite often. He says his post spent $100,000 on parts and repairs last year.

Staples even says, there've been times, a car has broken down while an officer is responding to a call, and that can affect officers ability to respond to the call of duty.

"On a day to day basis, these people spend 8 to 9 hours of a 10 hour shift in their cars. This is their work environment, their office. They need a vehicle that's reliable and safe for them to drive, so it has a tremendous impact on their day to day activity," Staples says.

On average, police departments replace their squad cars every 174,000 miles. The proposed bill will allow departments to replace cars more often, every 80,000 miles. Captain Staples believes that will help keep his fleet up to par.

Both the House and the Senate passed the bill. The Governor is reviewing the measure.

We also found out how Illinois State Police in District 14, near Macomb would benefit from this bill. Their oldest vehicle is a 1992 utility vehicle. Of their 33 cars, 15 have more than 150,000 miles; six of these have in excess of 200,000 miles.

We also found out that major repairs including engine and transmission replacements have been a common necessity to keep patrol cars available to Troopers.