SCOTTSBORO, Ala. (AP) – The Alabama Secretary of Law Enforcement says proposed agency budget cuts could lead to closures of driver’s license offices throughout the state next year.
Spencer Collier told a press conference Monday in Scottsboro that $40 million in funding lawmakers proposed during the last special session is inadequate.
The Alabama Law Enforcement agency has worked hard to make trips to drivers license offices less time consuming, with the addition of online license renewals, and setting appointments online. However, the process usually still takes hours.
Collier says the agency received $55 million this year and the cut would mean the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency would close all but the four busiest license offices in the state. In the meantime, the cuts will likely put extra pressure on local entities.
“If they close the examiners office here in our courthouse, then we know that that’s going to give us more to do, and we’ll do it with what we’ve got, so we’ll just wait and see,” says Jackson County Probate Judge Victor Manning.
Collier says voters should call their representatives and tell them to support Gov. Robert Bentley’s call for $300 million in new taxes to fill a general fund budget shortfall rather than cut state services.
Many Republican lawmakers have said they are strongly opposed to the tax plan.
The original story from WHNT can be found here.
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