A report by State Auditor, David Vaudt, says the legislature should take a look at the money the state pays county treasurers for issuing state driver’s licenses. Vaudt says they found it does cost the 81 counties that issue licenses slightly more than what they are paid by the state.
He says the average cost for the D.O.T. offices is $11.70 versus $10.20 for the country treasurer offices. The D.O.T. reimburses the counties $7 for each license. The costs to issue the licenses varies widely among counties with the highest average cost of over $20 in Pocahontas ($20.32), Van Buren ($22.58) and Winnebago ($22.97) counties.
The lowest cost was just over $5 in Wayne ($5.12), Shelby ($5.35) and Cherokee ($5.36) counties. Vaudt says the cost varies due to several factors. Vaudt says part of it is the personnel costs, and he says the type of licenses is another big factor as the commercial driver’s licenses take more time, and some counties don’t issue those types of licenses.
Vaudt suggests the legislature look at a tiered reimbursement based on the types of licenses issued. Vaudt says they also recommended that they step back and take a look what type of costs they are trying to reimburse the counties for. He says it costs the states over 11 dollars to issue the licenses and they are reimbursing the counties seven dollars, so it costs less to have the counties issues the licenses than it does to do it internally.
There are 18 state license stations that issue licenses. A copy of the complete report is available at the Auditor’s website here.