Thank you.

Yes. It has been the past 3 years. I paid my tags ($560) back in December (due Jan 31st) and had still not received my new stickers. So I head into the DMV as I needed a new DL anyways and they said I needed a smog. I showed her the top portion of my bill and it mentioned nothing about needing a smog. Well I went and got the smog today and will head to AAA tomorrow to get the tags. If this happens again next year, I'll take the steps you mentioned.