New York state may change the way it shares revenue with counties generated from vehicle registrations, something at least one Chautauqua County official supports.

According to Chautauqua County Clerk Larry Barmore, right now counties get 12.7% of a vehicle registration when a vehicle is registered in person at a local Department of Motor Vehicles office. If a vehicle is registered online, the state keeps almost all of that revenue. Barmore said Chautauqua County can get 3.25% of the revenue after about $2 million of online registration fees.

Because of this split, counties will often lobby residents to register their vehicle in person, while the state will lobby residents to register their vehicles online.

Barmore said in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget is a proposal for counties to get 10.7% of revenue from vehicle registrations whether made in person or online.

Barmore said he supports this proposed change.

“This is something we’ve been working on for years. I’ve been on the DMV committee for the state Clerk’s Association since I got (elected),” he said.

Barmore said if this takes effect, the county DMV office will keep more money, but how much more is debatable.

“We thought we were going to make about $90,000 a year more than the (current) system, but the state estimates that it’s going to be $182,000. … We think that’s kind of an aggressive estimate, but it would be great if they’re right.”

The proposal wouldn’t go into effect until Jan. 1, 2024. “No matter what it is, we’re going to get more money than we are right now,” Barmore said.

The proposal requires the state Legislature to pass the governor’s budget. Barmore said he’s spoken to both state Sen. George Borrello and Assemblyman Andy Goodell, saying he’s in support of the change.

“They’re both in favor of it. I don’t know why any state legislator would be against it, because it’s not a Republican-Democrat issue. It’s a taxpayer issue,” he said.

Barmore noted state DMV Commissioner Mark J.F. Schroeder supports the proposal, in part because there’s a number of things local Department of Motor Vehicle offices do that can’t be done on line.

“The state needs DMV offices throughout the state, otherwise people aren’t being served,” he said. “They also realize that if we start losing money, and we start closing DMV offices, they’re going to have to open some up and the state can’t run them as cheaply as we can.”

Barmore said in the past the local DMV offices made extra money that was put back into the county budget. Today, the offices cover their costs, but that’s about it.

“There was a time when we made a couple, $300,000 a year but that doesn’t happen anymore,” he said.

Even though the county may get more revenue, Barmore said the main reason he supports the proposal is because it erases tension between counties and the state.

“We can stop fighting with the state over whose going to get customers. If the state has a website and a system that’s really easy for people, we can encourage them to use it without worrying about losing revenue,” he said.