What an expired-registration ticket costs in South Dakota

South Dakota has no grace period. Noncommercial registrations are staggered by the first letter of the owner’s last name (SDCL 32-5-2.2), and under SDCL 32-5-2.4 every staggered plate or validation sticker expires on the last day of the assigned month; operating a motor vehicle without the current plate displaying the proper validation sticker is a Class 2 misdemeanor from the first day of the next month. The ticket amount is not written in the statute. It comes from the Unified Judicial System’s FY27 Fine and Bond Schedule for clerk magistrates (effective July 1, 2026), a schedule that each circuit’s presiding judge issues by order under SDCL 16-2-21(8). It lists 32-5-2.4, “Expired validation sticker”, at a $54 fine and a $132.50 total, and the FY27 addendum gives the same two figures. The $78.50 difference is fixed court costs that the schedule adds to every Class 2 misdemeanor under state law: $50 in liquidated costs (SDCL 23-3-52), a $23.50 court automation surcharge (SDCL 16-2-41(2)) and a $5 crime victims’ compensation surcharge (SDCL 23A-28B-42). Because the charge is on the schedule, you do not have to appear: clerk magistrates are directed to collect the listed total, and SDCL 16-2-21(8) authorizes the schedule as a list of offenses for which magistrates may accept written appearances, waivers of trial and pleas of guilty, and a clerk magistrate imposes the scheduled sentence only on a plea of guilty or no contest (SDCL 16-12C-11), so treat paying it as a guilty plea. An officer may still require you to appear before a magistrate judge. If a city or county wrote the ticket under its own ordinance, the order attached to the schedule says ordinance fines are the same as for similar state statutes, but its cost table puts ordinance costs at $72.50 ($50 liquidated costs, a $17.50 court automation surcharge and the $5 surcharge) instead of $78.50. The schedule does not print an ordinance total for this charge; by its own rules the arithmetic comes to $126.50 ($54 plus $72.50), so check the amount on your ticket. If you contest the ticket and are convicted, the judge sets the sentence anywhere up to the Class 2 maximum of a $500 fine, 30 days in county jail, or both (SDCL 22-6-2(2)), and the same $78.50 in costs applies to the conviction. The schedule also lists related registration charges at the same $54 and $132.50, including 32-5-2 (listed as failure to register vehicle or give proper information) and 32-5-98 (operating without license plates conspicuously displayed), so the amount does not change if your ticket cites one of those instead. Renewing late adds no penalty at the county treasurer, but you lose the lapsed months. SDCL 32-5-2.6 is headed “Fee for late renewal”, yet its text charges only the full year’s fee (the same amount an on-time renewal costs), and the new registration still runs only to your assigned month, so you get no credit for the months it was expired. No separate late charge appears in chapter 32-5, the Department of Revenue’s staggered noncommercial license fee schedule, its Individual FAQs, or its title, fees and registration pages (all searched in October 2026). The interest, 10% penalty and $1-a-week late title fee those pages describe apply to the 4% excise tax and title application on a newly acquired vehicle, counted from the purchase date, not to renewing a vehicle you already own.