DMV Fees Oh My

According to the Polk County, Florida Tax Collector website, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) has more than doubled the fees for vehicle registrations and renewals, beginning September 1, 2009. In some cases, the fees increased by 125%. The DHSMV Fee Schedule shows the cost to get a replacement driver license is going up from $10 to $25.

The Tax Collector advises residents; "Vehicle owners with registrations that expire no later than November 30, 2009 may save money by renewing their registrations on or before August 31, 2009 and pay the lower fee amounts one more year."

Why would Legislature approve a 125% rate increase?

Check out the Florida Budget Online and make your own assumptions. Yes, the DHSMV lost nearly $27 million in the new budget and had to make it up somewhere, but the Executive Office of the Governor GAINED over $72 million dollars! Salaries and Benefits saw an increase of over $82,000 with a decrease of one position. I don't have an accounting degree, but I think that might mean that although they are eliminating one position (probably one that hasn't been filled in quite some time) they're getting more money for salaries... In laymens terms: A PAY RAISE.

Something just isn't right about Governor's employees getting a pay raise while the rest of the state is falling apart. And that's just one, tiny example of where money could have been saved, in my opinion.

Take a look at "The People's Budget" and see where the state says our money is going while they're making us pay more for their services. There are some scary numbers there.