Fees collected by the county Department of Motor Vehicles are “substantially under budget this year” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. P-J file photo

Not too surprisingly, Chautauqua County’s Department of Motor Vehicles did not make as much money as it hoped to in 2020.

During the county Legislature’s Audit and Control Committee meeting, budget director Kathleen Dennison shared that the county clerk’s office, which oversees the DMV offices locally, had challenges last year due to COVID. “The DMV fees are substantially under budget this year. They’re under budget by $382,000 but that is somewhat better than we expected at earlier points in 2020. The performance is greatly affected by COVID but not as badly as we had expected,” she said.

The county gets revenue from DMV renewals when they are made locally. Funding from on line renewals goes to the state.

In 2020, the legislature amended the clerk’s budget. Dennison said the clerk’s office finished the year under the adopted budget but over the amended budget.

Committee Chairman Chuck Nazzaro asked Dennison if she thinks those renewal fees will eventually return. She said it appears they will.

“The performance in the later part of the year was coming back to a more normal situation but there still certainly is potential risk when it comes to the budget for 2021,” she said.

The county set the revenue budget for 2021 the same as what was set in 2020. “At the time we did the budget we expected the COVID crisis to be a little bit shorter,” she said. “Those fees are showing some rebound but right now I would not expect them to come all the way back to the budget that we have in place 2021.”

Nazzaro thanked Dennison for her comments. “We’ll keep a watchful eye on that as we move along in 2021,” he said.