More Dmv Fee Money to Stay Local Under Ritchie Bill

Mandate Relief Measure Approved Tuesday by Senate

State Senator Patty Ritchie has announced her bipartisan legislation to provide mandate relief to counties by allowing them to retain more money collected at local DMV offices for work done on behalf of the state has passed the Senate.

Across New York State 51 out of 62 counties are required to operate a local DMV office where they process transactions and provide services required by the state.  Under current law, the state takes more than 87 percent of all fees collected for work done by the county.  As a result of Senator Ritchie’s measure (S.4964-A), the percentage of revenue retained by the local DMV office would increase.

“From overhead to staffing, it’s unfair to require a county DMV to provide services on behalf of the state and not share equally in the revenue,” said Senator Ritchie, who formerly served as St. Lawrence County Clerk.

“Local governments are continually looking for ways to stretch their budgets and gain relief from costs imposed by the state that make it increasingly difficult to balance their budgets.  That’s why I’ve been working to provide mandate relief to county and local taxpayers and this bill is just one step towards that goal.”

Currently, county clerks retain just 12.7 percent of fees collected.  Under Senator Ritchie’s legislation, the amount would increase to 25 percent. Additionally, the bill would allow county clerks to keep 60 percent—up from 30 percent—of the $30 fee collected for the processing of non-driver identification cards.

The measure was requested by the New York State Association of County Clerks, an organization which Senator Ritchie formerly served as president of.  Earlier this year, the group passed a resolution calling for an

increase in the share of revenue, saying “the remaining 12.7 percent county share has not been increased since 1999, yet the amount of work required by the local DMV offices has increased in that same time period.”

As St. Lawrence County Clerk, Senator Ritchie used the local DMV office as a way to generate more than $1 million in non-tax revenue for the county annually, helping to balance budgets and hold the line on property tax increases.

The measure was sent to the Assembly, where it is sponsored by Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi.