By Gabrielle Gurley
With all eyes on the big dogs in the governor’s race, the underdog can afford to go out on a limb.
Christy Mihos, who is challenging Charles Baker for the Republican nod, has proposed relocating Registries of Motor Vehicles to city and town halls, all 351 of them. (Baker suggested allowing some chain stores like Wal-mart take over some Registry business last month.)
Mihos blogged on his campaign web site:
We know where the City and Town Halls are located, they’re user friendly, they all comply with ADA requirements, and we all know our local public servants. The State will act as a service bureau supplying the municipalities with the information they need to do the transactions all for a fee, of course.
Ludicrous? Not quite.
Putting registries in free or low-cost locations isn’t a new idea. Attleboro, Charlton, Haverhill, Natick, Nantucket, Vineyard Haven, and Worcester already have registries in municipal or state buildings. The Lowell registry is scheduled to move into the city-owned Early Garage development in June. The RMV also has negotiated gift leases (read: free!) for mall spaces in Danvers and Easthampton.
Last year, the Registry announced plans to reduce the number of branches. Currently, there are 30 RMV branches statewide.
Mihos doesn’t detail how he would scale up his plan to 300-plus places. It seems that the 700 RMV employees would be able to work in their own cities or towns; Mihos says RMV employees “love” the idea. What about municipalities without RMV resident-workers? Would the current RMV employees shuttle around to those towns? Does the state deputize municipal workers to handle RMV transactions or hire new people? Who outfits, pays for, and oversees all these new spaces?
But here’s the kicker:
Yet the Municipalities will keep revenues from the RMV functions to increase local revenue streams, which have been cut over the years.
In 2009, the RMV received nearly $390 million in registry fees alone. Just a guess, but in the current budget climate, a Governor Mihos would quickly find it nearly impossible to pry that cold, hard RMV cash out of state lawmakers’ hands.
