Gov.-elect Jay Nixon commits to bidding out all Missouri “fee offices”
As one of his first acts as governor, Gov.-elect Jay Nixon told reporters today he would bid out all driver’s license fee offices in the state.
The fee offices have long been political patronage plums for the supporters of past governors, both Democrats and Republicans. Much of the fees charged for driver’s licenses go to profit to the people who run the offices. Gov. Matt Blunt was heavily criticized for expanding the patronage system; and after the criticism, he began bidding some of the fee offices out.
During the campaign, Nixon’s opponent, Kenny Hulshof, said he would bid out all the offices. Nixon wouldn’t commit to a position, though he said he intended to end the “patronage system.”
Today, Nixon said he would begin bidding out the offices, starting with the largest volume offices, within 24 hours of taking office on Jan. 12. He said the bids would be awarded on a point system, with points given for efficiency of operation, financial stability, qualifications, past performance, civic, non-profit connections, minority and women-owned businesses and the amount of fees the operator would be willing to give back to the state Department of Revenue.
Nixon said is RFP’s would be different than the ones Blunt uses, but he didn’t specify how.
The second part of Nixon’s plan is to encourage more driver’s license business be done online. He pointed to Arizona and Virginia as two states that do significant business online. Missouri does very little in that area, he said.
“Ending political patronage is vital, but it isn’t the entire answer,” Nixon said.
Nixon told reporters that the current holders of the 183 fee offices (9 of which were bid by the Blunt administration) would hold on to their offices until their specific office came up for bid. He said he hoped to bid about 6 offices a week.
He said political supporters of his wouldn’t be disqualified from bidding, though political support would not be “part of the evaluation process.”
“He said political supporters of his wouldn’t be disqualified from bidding, though political support would not be “part of the evaluation process.”
Um, yeah. I believe that. Blago is as clean as a whistle as well.
looks like the price to drive is going up…..under the new system, operators will have to charge higher fees to live up to the new state requirements….it’s nixon’s stealth way of raising taxes…..who
voted for this career politician?
“….with points given for minority and women-owned businesses… ”
Can it get more racist or sexist?
I have lived in a number of other states and marvel at the political favoritism in Mo.
License fees and sales tax- Our license fees are relatively low compared to other states, on the surface. In Arizona license and sales tax fees are paid at a dealership when you buy a car. License plates are mailed to the address you have on the title application. Private party sales are not taxed as they do not happen at a licensed dealership. Renewal fees are paid on-line after inspection. License fees are based on the value of the car. Their ‘personal property tax’ is built into that fee. So you are paying the equivalent of personal property tax. However, you do not get a large bill at the end of the year like Mo. By stretching the payments out to license renewal time it allows even lower income persons to afford to license their cars/trucks.
There is no need for persons the number of persons working at the license bureau offices or the collectors that collect the Personal Property Tax. These are sweetheart deals based on ‘the good ol’ boy system in Mo.
I plan to retire soon and will not remain in Mo due to the fact that Mo has never seen a tax they don’t like.
…….well I say hooray for Mr Nixon.
Every visit to one of the license offices is like a Seinfeld “Soup-Nazi” episode, and it isn’t like you can just go to a different store.
Aren’t license fees set by the state, sharkbreath?
….The workers at these office can be the rudest people. Notice, I did not say ALL. I’d much rather do it on the internet. Less chance for errors. Less chance of watching workers stand around with cookies in his or her hand and not wait on customers. Less chance of being treated like an stray dog.
Think this will keep the folks from MO from talking about IL being corrupt? You folks over here are just as corrupt. You even legitimize it with offices and all. How quaint!
MMK are you willing to not discriminate without set asides? Your state has a history of non-inclusion without it. Nothing worse than a white boy whining when they still have all the breaks in the world. Let me iron your hood for you and impregnate your wife while stealing her shoes.
MMK…you poor bass-turd. All the corruption built into those office systems and all you can pick out of that is the part about inclusion which has to be forced because it never happens naturally in your plantation backwards southern mentality state.
“the amount of fees the operator would be willing to give back to the state Department of Revenue”
This is the line I find most troubling.
By the way, my African-American/Native American wife will be bidding on one of the fee offices and she is also a lesbian. I think she should be a shoo in Jay.