Jerry there was an article in the paper regarding this and the reason for it. Once you paid your initial property tax and your registration fee your sticker was good for 3 years. According to the article a number of people simply ignored the subsequent yearly tax and continued using the boat until the sticker ran out. Some sold their boat with taxes due which caused a nightmare for the new owner.
As I stated we all getting punished instead of just the guilty. I'm not sure how factual their stated reasons are but there had to be a better way to resolve this.