Ohio public safety director warns highway patrol faces crisis without registration, title fee increases

Ohio’s Department of Public Safety told the House Public Safety Committee on Feb. 12 that a decades-old funding structure has left the Ohio State Highway Patrol facing a looming budget “cliff” and that two modest fee increases included in the state operating budget (House Bill 96) are intended to prevent cuts to trooper services and specialized units.

Director Andy Wilson, head of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, told the panel that the patrol has been funded primarily by vehicle-related fees since a 2003 budget change and that those fees have not been adjusted for inflation. “If we do not address our looming funding crisis for the patrol in this budget, the Ohio State Highway Patrol will look very different at the end of this biennium than it does today, and that difference will put Ohio citizens in danger,” Wilson said.

Wilson said the budget proposal includes a $10 increase in the motor-vehicle registration fee and a $3 increase in the vehicle title fee. He stated the proposal includes language that would restrict the registration-fee increase “so that every dollar associated with this fee increase … goes directly to the highway patrol” and not to other Department of Public Safety operations.

Why it matters: Committee members pressed witnesses on how officials arrived at the proposed fee amounts…