Gov. John Kasich's administration is seeking to charge Ohio car buyers another $31 million in fees to help pay for the Highway Patrol.
The cost of an auto title would rise from $15 to $25 under the Ohio Department of Public Safety's plan. Since Ohio has about three million new and used auto sales a year, the added fees would provide about $31.5 million in new money.
In return, the state would eliminate a controversial $20 late fee for drivers license renewals, that would save drivers a combined $4 million a year. The changes are part of the overall budget bill.
Public Safety officials and a Kasich spokesman said the fee hike is not a tax increase. They said Kasich would not be breaking a pledge to stay away from tax increases. They said the money drivers supply for operation of the Patrol is a service fee, not a tax.
"Fees and taxes are very different things, and fee changes -- both up and down -- should reflect the underlying services' costs," said Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols. "We have always said that people who benefit from a service should pay for that service instead of having it subsidized by other taxpayers."
Public Safety spokesman Joe Andrews noted the Patrol had a budget of $269 million in each of the last two years, but it will drop to $261 million for the 2011-12 fiscal year and $258 million for 2012-13. He questioned how anyone could call a fee change an increase if the total taxes collected for the Highway Patrol falls.
Asked why the Patrol needs a $31.5 million fee increase for a budget that it is cutting, Public Safety officials could not provide a clear answer.
Kasich signed a pledge last year created by the group Americans for Tax Reform in which he promised to "oppose and vote against any and all efforts to raise taxes."
The tax reform group's website states that "user fees" are not considered taxes, but it defines those narrowly.
"The charge must be paid only by those who use that specific government service; and individuals must have the choice whether to purchase the service from government (and thus pay the fee) or to purchase the service from a private business," the website said.
State Rep. Ronald Amstutz, a Wooster Republican and chairman of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee that is considering the Public Safety budget, said he does not consider the auto title fee a tax, but can understand how others might.
He said he and the committee will weigh that fee increase against other cuts.
"We're not in the fee-raising business," Amstutz said. "We're going to look for alternatives, I think."
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