Full Report (PDF) - Office of the Legislative Auditor

BACKGROUND19when the true agent was a non-profit corporntion such as AAA, a Chamber ofCommerce, or a Ro1:aIy Club.Officials from several other states said that they were concerned about staff continuitybecause the work requires considerable knowledge of the motor vehicle anddriver's license renewal systems. Missouri requires new agents to attend, at theirown cost, a one-week training progrnm, and work at their site with field representativesfor two weeks. New Jersey pays all site costs for political appointees,but they also specify staffing and salary levels and require agents to be on site 35hours per week. Most importantly, the staff is not automatically replaced when anew agent is appointed.Administrative FeesIn Minnesota, deputy registrnrs collect an administrative fee of$3.50 for eachmotor vehicle title and tab trnnsaction, and driver's license renewal. Fees forDNR trnnsactions are less; $3.25 for each boat title and $.50 for each boat, snowmobile,and ATV registration.We compared Minnesota's administrative fees with fees in other states for threetypes oftrnnsactions: motor vehicle registration renewals (tabs), motor vehicle titles,and driver's license renewals. We excluded from our analysis fees that werenot comparable to Minnesota's fees. First, we excluded states that did not distinguishthe administrative fee from the tax or user fee. We also excluded walk-infees chaIBed by four states because they were not designed to compensate agentsfor their administrative costs. For example, Alaska and Rhode Island have walkinfees of$lO, but private agents must give this fee revenue back to the state. ISWe excluded fees chaIBed by registration services that are agents of the customerbecause they do not provide the same type of service as Minnesota's deputy registrnrs.I9 Unlike Minnesota, these agents provide pick-up and delivery service, butdo not process the trnnsaction or issue tabs. Since they are not agents of the state,they are minimally regulated. Their fees may be higher than most administrativefees, but since their fees are unregulated, we could not obtain reliable data.Finally, we excluded fees in a few states in which agents (such as AAA or grocerystores) provided tab renewal as a customer service at no additional cost. Altogether,our comparison group included 32 states that had administrative fees fortabs, 30 states for titles, and 13 states for drivers' licenses. For each type oftrnnsaction,we used the higher of the fees charged by public or private agents in astate. We found:• Minnesota's administrative fees for motor vehicle titles, tabs, anddriver's license renewal are higher than fees in most other states.18 Wisconsin and Arkansas have walk-in fees of$3 and $2 respectively, but officials said that thesefees are designed to encourage service by mail rather than cover the transaction cost.19 California, lllinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Hawaii, and West Virginia have licensed but minimallyregulated registration services.