DMV finance unit audits fuel taxes; agency expands veteran plates and autism “blue envelope” program

Commissioner Andrew Collier told the House Transportation Committee that the DMV's finance division houses an audit unit responsible for federally required audits of fuel taxes and commercial registration programs. "All the gas tax, diesel tax, the international, the IFTA, the international fuel tax agreement, and the IRP, the international registration plan ... all those have to be audited per federal regulation," Collier said.

Collier provided collections and registration figures the agency cited: roughly $85,000,000 in gas‑tax receipts, $17,000,000 in diesel tax, about $1,000,000 in IFTA receipts, and a little over $12,000,000 in IRP registrations for the referenced period. He said the DMV's audit team verifies that carrier records and state accounts align with federal rules.

The agency also described special‑program activities administered by a DMV unit that works with veterans and other special populations. Collier said the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently allowed DMV to produce a Silver Star or "flying cross" style valor plate and that staff are pursuing approval to add branch‑specific veteran plates. Collier highlighted a "blue envelope" program for people with autism: a blue card placed with registration documents that officers can use to guide interactions and improve outcomes during traffic stops or contacts with law enforcement.

Operations director Nancy Prescott and enforcement director Wade Cochran added that audit and finance activities touch much of the state's transportation infrastructure, and that the DMV's back‑office improvements have shortened mail processing from an average as high as 35 days prior to modernization to about four days on the current process for many transactions. Committee members asked for follow‑up detail on collections trends and on program outreach for the blue envelope and veteran plate initiatives.