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Senate Finance hears DMV testimony on $29 driver’s-test no-show fee; senators consider delaying implementation
Summary
On March 19, the Senate Finance Committee questioned DMV Commissioner Amy Potter about why a $29 no-show fee for scheduled driver’s tests has not been collected and discussed an amendment to delay implementing the fee until the agency’s new licensing and scheduling system is live.
The Senate Finance Committee on March 19 took follow-up testimony on a bill to enable collection of a $29 no-show fee for scheduled driver’s tests. Commissioner Amy Potter told the committee the Department of Motor Vehicles has not been collecting the fee since it was implemented during the COVID period because the agency’s legacy mainframe cannot accept the online payments needed to charge and retain no-show deposits. "This could be, but it’d be more of a post-November go-live application," Commissioner Amy Potter said, referring to the DMV’s licensed- and scheduling-related modernization work.
Committee members pressed the department on the fiscal trade-offs. A Joint Fiscal Office note cited in committee estimated as much as $119,000 in potential revenue tied to no-shows; Potter and committee members also referenced internal tallies showing roughly 3,130 no-shows in the relevant reporting period. One senator framed the fee as an incentive to reduce wasted appointment slots: "If we could do an amendment that would allow it to start maybe January first of 2026," the senator said, proposing a delayed start to give the DMV time to complete system updates.
Committee members said they were balancing two concerns: not creating new barriers for residents during a period of fiscal pressure on transportation funding, and avoiding operational inefficiencies caused by appointments that are reserved and unused. A senator who spoke of current scheduling scarcity described the practice of holding multiple appointments when the fee is not enforced and said the fee could encourage people to cancel rather than “ghost” an appointment.
Potter described the DMV’s modernization sequence: registration systems rolled out first; the remaining licensing and scheduling components are planned for go-live around Veterans Day in November, after which the agency expects to have online-payment capability for fees tied to licensing and driver testing. "Our goal is Veterans weekend of November," Potter said, while noting the date would carry an asterisk because parts of the update are in code freeze and testing.
Committee members agreed to pursue a drafting process rather than immediate repeal: they discussed drafting an amendment to keep the statutory fee on the books but delay active collection to give the DMV time to implement the technical change and to limit short-term revenue impacts to the transportation fund. The committee did not record a formal vote during the March 19 session on the amendment; senators said they would circulate language and route any amendment through the relevant committees, including Transportation.
No formal decision on the bill’s final language or implementation date was reached at the March 19 hearing. The discussion closed with committee members asking staff to prepare amendment language and to coordinate with DMV leadership on the system timeline and operational details.
