CLEVELAND — An estimated 2 million Ohioans have paid more than $3 million in fees for a service that hasn't been performed since July 2, 2018, according to an article from the Columbus Dispatch.
Each driver's license or identification card issuance or renewal is accompanied by a $1.50 lamination fee to compensate local registrars for putting the cards in plastic. Since July 2, 2018, nearly 2.6 million driver's licenses and 448,000 ID cards have been issued following Ohio's switch to federally compliant driver's licenses and ID cards produced and mailed by a BMV vendor, according to a 2018 Facts and Figures document.
In a statement obtained by News 5 from BMV Registrar Charles L. Norman, BMV said:
"Shortly after becoming Registrar, this issue was brought to my attention and we immediately began to address it. In this upcoming biennial budget, the Ohio Department of Public Safety intends to update Ohio statutes to better reflect the current functions of deputy registrars associated with issuance of driver licenses and state identification cards, which no longer includes local printing and lamination but now instead includes additional document verification and scanning."
The $1.50 fee collected by about 200 local registrars to compensate for the lamination of identification cards will still be used and renamed to reflect the additional cost of local workers reviewing and scanning additional identification documents, such as birth certificates and Social Security cards.
Ohio legislators approved a bill in December 2018, that retained the lamination fee while extending the expiration of ID cards issued to permanently disabled Ohioans from four to eight years.
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