Amid budget shortfall, Okla. lawmakers mull $8.50 increase in driver’s license renewal fee

Okla. lawmakers mull raising driver’s license fee

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma lawmakers said Monday they are considering raising the cost of renewing a driver’s license by $8.50, as well as several other fee increases, as they grapple with an estimated $1.2 billion budget shortfall.

Department of Public Safety Commissioner Kevin Ward told a joint House and Senate budget panel that more than a dozen proposed fee hikes or new fees would generate an estimated $32.8 million for the cash-strapped agency.

The legislative committee, which asked several public safety agencies to present scenarios for budget cuts ranging from 7.5 percent to 12.5 percent, also heard from the director of the state’s prison system, who warned that deeper budget cuts could lead to a major crisis.

Further cuts would mean cutting even more employees that watch over a growing number of inmates, Department of Corrections director Justin Jones said, raising “just one new red flag after another that in my business is indicative that you’re heading for a train wreck.”

If lawmakers approve the increases, the driver’s license renewal fee would jump from $21.50 to $30 and the replacement cost for driver’s licenses and state identification cards would rise from $10 to $15.

Those two moves would generate about $6.3 million, and would help the agency recover labor and other costs associated with the program, Ward said. Among the other proposals are raising the driver’s license reinstatement fee from $25 to $50, doubling the cost of size and weight permits, and increasing parking fines and collision report costs.

Ward said the agency also is considering closing driver’s license exam sites in ten rural communities: Grove, Kingfisher, Stilwell, Vinita, Weatherford, Heavener, Roland, Spiro, Stigler and Talihina.

By far the largest component of public safety appropriations is the state’s prison system, which has an annual budget of about $500 million. But cuts to last year’s budget reduced that appropriation to $461 million, Jones said.

The agency already has reduced budgets at various facilities, eliminated treatment programs for drug and sex offenders and offered voluntary buyouts that 119 employees accepted.

The state’s prison system, which has added about 640 inmates since July 1, currently is at 99 percent capacity, Jones said. More cuts, he warned, would lead to mandatory furloughs of all employees for 23 days each year, along with eliminating between 659 and 987 workers.

Oklahoma already incarcerates more women per capita than any other state, and ranks fourth nationally in the overall incarceration rate, Jones said. Couple that with reduced budgets, a growing number of inmates and a correctional officer-to-inmate ratio over nearly 9 to 1, and Jones said conditions are ideal for a major prison problem.

State lawmakers have about $1.2 billion less to spend this year than they did last year. Even after tapping cash reserves and federal stimulus money, budget cuts of more than $500 million will be necessary without any new sources of revenue. Leaders in the GOP-controlled Legislature and Democratic Gov. Brad Henry have both said tax increases are not an option.