"How can the state possibly support better service at the Registry if
we're going to continue to lose revenue? It is unfair for all of the taxpayers to
subsidize a service that only some ... benefit from. I am not prepared to steal resources
from other departments to subsidize these operations. There just isn't going to be room in
the state's budget."
House Ways and Means Committee
Chairman Paul Haley
Registry officials counter that their $51 million budget is a fraction of the
$350 million in annual revenue the agency generates for the state.
"We're taking in $6 for every $1 we spend," said one RMV official.
"If we were taking in only $50 million, I'd say maybe you have an argument."
Season's greetings and here they come to pick your pocket again!
"MINE, MINE, MINE. More Is Never Enough!"
Just yesterday the Boston Globe reported: "This year's state spending
plan will cost $1.4 billion, or 6.3 percent, more than last year's. Over the past five
years, the budget has grown by 28 percent."
It has DOUBLED in just the past dozen years!
And the tobacco settlement "taxpayer reimbursement" has given them
billions more to spend.
Still that is not enough.
It's still not enough that they're ripping us off six times more than "the
cost of providing the service," even though that is not permitted under the law.
They actually believe that money belongs to them -- all $300 million a
year in illegal over-charges -- fees illegitimately raised over and above the high court's
requirement that the charge be no more than cost of providing the service. They dump the
excess fees down the state's general fund drain then resist using enough of it to provide
the one service for which it was extorted.
The Bacon Hill pols will not rest until they kill the phase-out of Registry of
Motor Vehicle fees for license and registration renewal. It's driving them absolutely
nuts that we might keep more of our own money, instead of surrendering it to
government ... and them!
Once again, a word of warning to the Bacon Hill pols:
If they have the foolish temerity to break our 1992 out-of-court settlement,
CLT will just take the constitutional issue back to court -- resume where we left off. We
will end this illegal shell-game. If their lust to squeeze more out of us proves
irresistible, CLT will take no hostages this time -- no more settlements.
We will eliminate that $300 million bonanza in annual RMV over-charges and return
it to motorists. That court decision, of course, will effect all fees collected
by the state: Each of the hundreds of state fees will need to be properly justified,
adjusted, or eliminated.
C'mon, make our day -- make another court case unavoidable, make it worth the cost
and effort!
 |
Chip Ford |
The Boston Herald
Monday, December 5, 1999
Gov revs up $20M plan to improve RMV service
by Cosmo Macero Jr.
Hated by consumers and under fire from state officials, the Registry of Motor
Vehicles would get up to $20 million to improve service under a "fix-it" plan to
be unveiled by Gov. Paul Cellucci this week.
But the one-time spending spree for more staff, modern computers, new phones and
other customer-service basics faces almost certain peril in the House.
Top leaders there say if the RMV needs more money, the first option should be to
reinstate old fees Cellucci has eliminated.
The governor's move on the RMV comes as new Registrar Dan Grabauskas tries to
better the agency's reputation and improve efficiency. A scathing report issued in
September by state Auditor Joseph DeNucci found the agency beset with internal problems
and plagued by preventable customer delays.
Most recently, the Registry has come under fire for awarding stellar evaluations
and $500 bonuses to as many as 60 percent of its managers, despite evidence from many
quarters that there is ample room for improvement.
"We've done the best that we can with existing resources. We've streamlined
branch procedures and have 60 more staff working windows," said one high-ranking RMV
official. "We've literally begged, borrowed and stolen."
Inmate crews from the Department of Correction have been enlisted to re-paint and
improve Registry signs.
Grabauskas has ordered many of the agency's 24 branch offices to open for business
at 8:30 a.m.
And in a bid to show he means business in repairing the RMV's tattered public
image, the registrar himself plans to man a customer window during the busy Christmas
holiday week of Dec. 27 through Dec. 31.
"I am going to work a counter at one (or more) of the branches,"
Grabauskas told Registry staff in a Dec. 2 memo obtained by the Herald. "I am
recruiting volunteers and would greatly appreciate your consideration to do the
same."
According to Cellucci administration sources, a bill the governor plans to file
this week would spend between $15 million and $20 million on staff and equipment that
Grabauskas has deemed essential. Much of the RMV's computer network dates to the
mid-1980s, and the agency's phone system is able to handle only about 10 percent of the
100,000 calls that come in every day.
Those items alone will cost about $11.5 million, sources say. But Grabauskas also
wants more staff to help reduce waiting times and better manage customers when they're in
line.
"We're going to spend money to fix the Registry," said one Cellucci
administration source.
But it may not be that simple.
While the Legislature's Public Safety Committee, in its own report on the RMV,
agreed "more resources" are needed at the oft-criticized agency, there is little
appetite among some top lawmakers to divert funds from elsewhere in the state's $20.8
billion budget.
House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Haley (D-Weymouth), who is on duty with the
U.S. Navy and was unavailable for comment, has said Cellucci is making a mistake by
continuing a total phase-out of registration and license-renewal fees.
That will cost taxpayers $100 million a year in revenue by 2001, he says.
"How can the state possibly support better service at the Registry if we're
going to continue to lose revenue?" Haley said recently in response to the Public
Safety Committee's conclusions.
"It is unfair for all of the taxpayers to subsidize a service that only some
... benefit from. I am not prepared to steal resources from other departments to subsidize
these operations. There just isn't going to be room in the state's budget."
Registry officials counter that their $51 million budget is a fraction of the $350
million in annual revenue the agency generates for the state.
"We're taking in $6 for every $1 we spend," said one RMV official.
"If we were taking in only $50 million, I'd say maybe you have an argument."
But Grabauskas himself, who declined comment on Cellucci's bill, was ushered in as
new registrar on a platform of changing the culture at the RMV, with little mention of
needing millions of dollars to improve the attitude toward customer service.
"There is more than enough money to run the Registry," Grabauskas said
after Cellucci appointed him registrar in September. "It costs nothing to say 'Good
morning.'"
Moreover, DeNucci's audit found that at least some of the customer service hassles
are attributable to so-called "staffing vacancies," in which the total number of
employees on duty in a particular branch is less than what the budget for that branch
already allows.
Those shortfalls, DeNucci said, are often because employees are on extended sick
leave, family leave or have retired or resigned.
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