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License, Registration Fees May Be Raised

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By MIKE SALINERO

msalinero@tampatrib.com

Published: March 27, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - In their zeal not to raise taxes, Florida lawmakers continue to look at selected fee increases as a way to cover the state's looming $5.7 billion budget deficit.

The latest such move came Thursday from a state Senate committee that is recommending raising fees for driver's licenses, registrations and records by several dollars each. The increases mirror proposals by Gov. Charlie Crist.

Crist's fee increase suggestions include:

•First time driver's license fees, to $30 from $27;

•Retaking the drivers' skills test, to $20 from $10;

•Processing of personalized or specialty license plate to $5 from $2;

•Retaking knowledge test, to $10 from $5.

The changes would generate $385 million, according to Sen. Mike Fasano, a New Port Richey Republican who chairs the Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee. Of that amount, $113 million would stay in the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the rest would go toward the state general fund for deficit reduction.

Fasano said the fee increases, plus raids on state trust funds, allowed the committee to restore or reduce steep cuts previously planned for a number of state programs, including child care programs for parents who qualify.

Fasano also boasted that the committee would not take a single state trooper off Florida highways.

Altogether, the committee cut $130 million from programs ranging from work force training to economic development. State grants to libraries were reduced by $4.2 million, a cut that still left $21 million in funding, Fasano said.

The biggest hit in the recommended budget was reserved for Visit Florida, the state's chief tourism promoter. Last year, the agency received $35 million from the state. But Fasano wants to strip all of Visit Florida's general revenue funding, leaving the agency to subsist on $8 million in trust fund money.

Fasano laughed when asked if the cut was punishment for fat bonuses paid to Visit Florida's executives and the agency's use of an out-of-state vendor to handle calls about vacations in the Sunshine State.

"I understand Visit Florida got the message loud and clear," Fasano said, referring to the anger directed at the agency's executives from lawmakers in both houses.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303.

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