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Deputy registrars and county clerks press for higher title and registration fees to keep local license bureaus open
Summary
Deputy registrars and clerks of courts told the Public Safety Committee that their current per-transaction fee has not kept pace with inflation and urged an increase so local license bureaus can remain open and retain staff; clerks asked that a larger share of the title fee be retained locally.
Deputy registrars and county clerks told the House Public Safety Committee that long-static user fees are straining local license bureaus and urged legislators to raise the per-transaction fee to preserve access and service.
Joe Evritz, president of the Ohio Deputy Registrar's Association and deputy registrar for the Montgomery and Mason BMV offices, said deputy registrars are privately owned small businesses that run over 180 local offices and that their standard service fee has not changed appreciably in two decades. Evritz told the committee that inflation has eroded fee value by more than 20 percent since 2019, that offices face rising rent and staffing pressure, and that some locations have closed or are at risk without a fee adjustment. He asked the committee to align the deputy-registrar fee with a title fee retained by county clerks — testimony cited a proposed matched fee of $12.25 per transaction.
Charlie Howard, executive vice president of the Greater Cincinnati Automobile Dealers Association and deputy registrar at the downtown Cincinnati license bureau, echoed the request, stressing that certain transactions (first-time licenses, out-of-state conversions, foreign-national IDs, vision tests for older drivers, reinstatements and voter registration) require in-person processing and that local offices provide same-day issuance. Howard said the privatized system provides revenue to the state at little direct state operating cost and that closing offices would shift costs to state-run operations.
Representatives of county clerks (Olivia Parkinson and Brandon Meyer) testified that the clerks’ portion of the $15 certificate-of-title fee (currently retained as $11.50 in testimony) has not kept pace with rising operational costs since its last increase in 2009 and requested increasing the clerk retention to $18.50 per title to cover wages and benefits. They said neighboring states often charge substantially more for title services and that many clerks provide immediate, same-day issuance of titles.
Committee members asked whether technological modernization (an Ohio Title Portal and the ATPS system) could reduce costs; witnesses said online options exist but cannot replace in-person fraud screening, vision testing and other services required for first-time or complex transactions. Witnesses offered budget details and warned that without fee increases, offices risk closures and reduced local access.
