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road 120The Legislature's Government Operations Committee recommends that Tompkins County go on record behind proposed State legislation that would increase the share of DMV revenue that can be retained to support county government.

Right now, the County can retain only 12.7% of revenue from Motor Vehicles transactions that comes through the County-operated DMV Office, Tompkins County Clerk Maureen Reynolds told the committee—a local share than has not been increased for more than 15 years, at a time when Internet services continue to affect the amount of fee-based revenues available to county DMVs.  Bills before the State Senate and Assembly would up the percentage that could be retained for over-the-counter transactions to 25%.

Tompkins is one of 51 of New York's 62 counties that are mandated to operate a local DMV, with the State retaining nearly all the fees, while Counties provide the services, including overhead and staffing.

Clerk Reynolds pointed out that increasing the share of DMV revenue that can be retained locally amounts to meaningful mandate relief.  She told the committee that the change, if approved, would generate an additional $550-610,000 in general revenue to support the operations of Tompkins County government, with no increased costs or fees for local residents or taxpayers.

The measure was recommended by unanimous vote of the committee and now proceeds to the full Legislature.

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