Plan to close DMVs in six Alaska communities is a government disservice

Alaska Department of Administration Commissioner Kelly Tshibaka’s judgement is beginning to trouble me. She continues to compromise services to individual Alaskans in favor of businesses and out-of-state contractors. Procurement practices she oversees at the department have come under worrying scrutiny. Most recently, she is insisting on closing Division of Motor Vehicles offices in six locations around the state in order to pave the way for private vendors, who are likely to charge Alaskans as much as 10 times the fees for the same services.

On March 4, appearing before the Senate Transportation Committee in Juneau, the commissioner vowed to close the six locations even if the Legislature were to specifically reference their continued operation in the fiscal year 2022 budget. She said the move is a cost-cutting measure, even though taken together, the revenue from these Eagle River, Delta Junction, Haines, Homer, Tok and Valdez offices is more that double the amount of their operating costs.

Describing the closures as “a creative proposal,” Commissioner Tshibaka said that under her privatization plan the cost of renewing a driver’s license for people in the affected communities would rise from $20 to $45. A practice test provided at no charge by state DMVs would cost $10. A REAL ID license would jump from $40 to $80. And the price for a copy of a car registration would skyrocket more than 1,000%, from $2 to $22.

According to the commissioner, most DMV services can be transacted online. However, that is not the case for a driving skills test, a license renewal if you are more than 68 years old, or for the renewal of a commercial driver’s license — a service that also cannot be obtained at some private companies. Moreover, those Alaskans most likely not to have decent internet service are also those who can least afford the near-price-gouging fees charged by the DMV private contractors.

At the March 4 hearing, when Sen. Jesse Kiehl, who represents Haines, asked Commissioner Tshibaka why, if the policy was so wise, the department was not proposing it for larger cities, she seemed to acknowledge the hardship it would cause the six communities when she said the proposal was probably too controversial to succeed in higher population centers. In other words, she chose to impose this disservice on only Alaskans whose numbers are small enough that their outcry can be ignored.

The state requires driver’s licenses and car registrations primarily for public safety. In establishing these requirements, the state also has a responsibility to make them affordable and easily obtained. This “creative proposal” does just the opposite, leaving me, a representative of one the six communities threatened with the loss of its DMV, to wrestle with the latest in a series of head-scratching schemes coming from the Department of Administration. I strongly urge Commissioner Tshibaka to abandon her plan.

Rep. Sara Hannan is chair of the Legislative Council and co-chair of the House Community & Regional Affairs Committee. She represents House District 33, which includes downtown Juneau, Haines, Klukwan, Gustavus and Skagway.

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