A proposal included in the state budget to more equitably share vehicle registration between the state and counties is, in our opinion, a no-brainer.

Counties currently get 12.7% of a vehicle registration when a vehicle is registered in person at a local Department of Motor Vehicles office. If a person registers the vehicle online, counties get 3.25% of the revenue. The situation has led to counties lobbying drivers to actively take on the inconvenience of taking time out of their day to go to the local DMV offices when it is much quicker to simply re-register a vehicle on the state DMV website. The counties’ lobbying for customers makes financial sense for counties. Chautauqua County’s DMV offices used to make a few hundred thousand dollars a year.

That is no longer the case. The county’s DMV offices pretty much break even — in part because it is so much easier for customers to renew registrations online.

State officials are proposing increasing the percentage of registration revenues to be shared with counties to 10.7% starting Jan. 1 after the state realized counties can’t operate DMV offices if they are losing money — meaning the state would have to provide the other services DMV offices provide. at a higher cost.

Sharing more vehicle registration revenue with counties is something that should have happened years ago. It’s been obvious for years drivers were going to use online registration rather than go to DMV offices, and it’s also obvious county clerks can provide other services cheaper than the state can. Sharing revenue more equitably benefits everyone. This proposal should sail through the state budget.