Utica, NY - Today Governor Cuomo announced the expansion of the Department of Motor Vehicles online programs,
In the spring, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the Department of Motor Vehicles was deemed as nonessential. Requests and appointments began to pile up throughout the summer until its reopening in Phase three of the state’s reopening protocol. While today's addition of online programs will help ease the load of some employees it will also be a detriment to the counties financially.
Governor Cuomo announced the launch of the Online Permit Test for all counties as well as Online Vehicle Registration Pilot programs for counties with state-run DMV offices.
These additional online services will cause a decrease of about 9% in revenue.
“Yeah it would help with the backlog but then the county is going to lose money,” said Sandra DePerno, Oneida County Clerk. “If they come in or mail it to us in-person we get 12.7%. If they do it online after each county reaches their state threshold we get 3.5%. Basically like someone's registration is $64 instead of getting $7.00 and change that we would get, we only get two dollars per transaction.”
When talking about a loss in revenue because of the drop off from in person to online, the money that comes in where is that distributed and how much of a fall-off will that take on the county?
“Well, the money that comes in everything goes in to the county coffer so they use the money for roads, bridges, parks. We're going to see a cut and service because of it,” said DePerno.
DePerno says the Association of County Clerks has been trying to work with legislature to get an increase in online revenue.
“I think it's a way for the state to try to recoup some of their money. The counties are broke because of this pandemic. We are trying to push to make as much revenue as we can for our constituents here. How is this going to affect the county?” said DePerno.
Currently, in-person DMV services are available for a limited number of people and a reservation is required.
