Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Transportation Taxation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
DMV overview: vehicle registrations rising, inspection activity declining after fee and system changes
Summary
Department of Motor Vehicles staff told the House Transportation Committee that vehicle registrations and purchase/use tax revenue have generally trended up since 2018 while inspection-sticker counts and some license renewals are down; staff flagged a November 2023 IT change (UT Trips) and fee adjustments as factors affecting timing and revenue.
Renee Foto, director of finance at the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, told the House Transportation Committee on April 16 that overall DMV revenue from registrations and purchase/use taxes has trended upward since 2018 even as inspection sticker counts and some license renewals have declined.
"So we have a lot for you today ... I'm gonna do a the big overview of dollars," Foto said as she began a presentation comparing revenue by quarter from 2018 through the first quarter of 2025. The presentation separated receipts from vehicle registrations, snowmobile and motorboat registrations, license fees and purchase/use tax.
Foto and committee members emphasized that timing and administrative changes affect quarter-to-quarter comparisons. Foto said the DMV implemented UT Trips in November 2023 and that change altered how renewal dates are calculated: "Now it's when you actually do the transaction that it calculates it for a year regardless of if it expired 3 months prior. So that is that is a revenue week." She said the change can reduce the amount of retroactive months previously captured when a customer renewed late.
On specific trends, staff pointed to a long-term uptick in vehicle registrations and in purchase/use tax receipts (the latter influenced by higher vehicle prices and Vermont's 6% rate on vehicle value). Snowmobile registrations showed a decline from a 2018 high; Foto noted snowmobile revenue is a much smaller portion of DMV totals than vehicle registrations, which she said reach on the order of "closer to that 15,000,000" at high points in some quarters. By contrast, inspection sticker counts showed no consistent upward bump after fee changes and appear to be trending down in several quarters.
Committee members asked whether the DMV can break out single- versus two-year registrations and whether staff can provide registration counts compared with inspection transactions to measure enforcement and compliance. Foto said the DMV can produce that data on request. "We have not pulled that information, but it is definitely something that we're looking into," she said.
The presentation noted the DMV mainly administers collection of funds and that the Agency of Transportation monitors budget impacts. Committee members asked when shortfalls would cause concern; staff replied that the transportation agency watches budget targets more closely than the DMV does, because the DMV's role is collection and administration.
The committee deferred further questions and scheduled a short adjournment before continuing other agenda items.
