48MOTOR VEmCLE DEPUTY REGISTRARSHennepin County processed about 8,500 transactions per employee, about 30 percentfewer than o<strong>the</strong>r huge deputies. One reason that it processed fewer transactionsper employee is that time-consuming transactions (drivers' licenses, titletransactions, and o<strong>the</strong>r long applications) made up a larger percentage (53 percent)<strong>of</strong> its deputy registrar transactions than <strong>the</strong>y did for o<strong>the</strong>r large deputies (40 percent).Ifwe adjusted Hennepin County's transactions by assuming that onedriver's license transaction takes as long as two registration renewal transactions,Hennepin County's transactions per employee would be about 20 percent lowerthan o<strong>the</strong>r large deputies.According to Hennepin County <strong>of</strong>ficials, ano<strong>the</strong>r reason that it processes fewertransactions per employee is that it provides a wide variety <strong>of</strong> services at eachservice center, including marriage licenses, passports, birth and death certificates,voter registrations, real estate tax. payments, recordings, notarizations, and fish andgame licenses. Our cost and employee figures include only staff time attributableto deputy registrar services, based on <strong>the</strong> David Griffith study.6 Never<strong>the</strong>less, <strong>the</strong>greater complexity <strong>of</strong> Hennepin County's service centers may require employeesto have more training and supervision. For example, Hennepin County crosstrainseach employee to handle each type <strong>of</strong>transaction.Income <strong>of</strong> Public Deputy RegistrarsTable 3.3 summarizes <strong>the</strong> estimated income earned by deputy registrars underboth <strong>the</strong> 1992 fee structure and <strong>the</strong> current fee structure. The income earned under<strong>the</strong> current fee structure is <strong>the</strong> income that <strong>the</strong>y would have earned in 1992 had <strong>the</strong>current driver's license fee been in effect. We found:In 1992, most<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 44smallest publi~.deputies lostmoney, butmost <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 34largest publicdeputies mademoney.• In 1992, many public deputy registrars lost money, particularlydeputies with fewer than 24,000 transactions per year. The recentdriver's license fee increase will increase revenues for most publicdeputies, though many small deputies will continue to lose money.Minnesota has 44 public deputy registrars that process fewer than 24,000 transactionsper year. In our sample, 76 percent <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se small and medium-small deputyregistrars (16 out <strong>of</strong> 21) lost money in 1992. Overall, we estimate that <strong>the</strong>se 44deputy registrars lost about $325,000 in 1992.Under <strong>the</strong> current fee schedule, 67 percent <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se small and medium-small deputyregistrars in our sample (14 out <strong>of</strong> 21) would have lost money. We estimatethat if <strong>the</strong> $3.50 driver's license fee had been in effect, <strong>the</strong> total loss for <strong>the</strong>se 44deputies would have been about $140,000 instead <strong>of</strong> $325,000.Minnesota had 35 single-<strong>of</strong>fice public deputy registrars that processed more than24,000 transactions per year. Thirty-three percent (7 out <strong>of</strong>21) <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se mediumlargeand large deputies in our sample had a loss in 1992. We estimate that <strong>the</strong>se35 deputies, taken toge<strong>the</strong>r, made about $315,000 in 1992.6 Hennepin County's service center department had 95.1 full-time employees in 1992. Accordingto <strong>the</strong> David Griffith analySis, about 56 percent <strong>of</strong> staff time was attributable to deputy registrar transactions.
DEPUTY REGISTRAR FINANCES 49Table 3.3: Income <strong>of</strong> Public Deputy Registrars, 1992Actual 19921992 Under Current Fee ScheduleNumber Number Deputies Lasing Mane~<strong>of</strong> InDeputies ~ N1mlber E.!m
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