Shelbyville Republican Sen. Aaron Reed, left, and Senate Transportation Committee Chair Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, discuss priority legislation that would allow local officials such as sheriffs and county clerks to renew drivers licenses in counties without regional offices. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)
FRANKFORT — Local officials such as sheriffs and county clerks could renew driver’s licenses in counties without regional offices under legislation that was filed Tuesday and is a priority in the Kentucky Senate.
The bill comes in response to reports of delays in getting appointments at regional offices, extended wait times and long drives to offices for rural Kentuckians.
Kentucky has 34 regional offices that issue and renew driver’s licenses. Drivers would still have to go to a regional office for a new license under this legislation.
Senate Bill 7, sponsored by Shelbyville Republican Sen. Aaron Reed, would allow counties without a regional office to choose one local official to offer license renewal services. Counties with regional offices are “taken care of for now” and would keep all services at those offices, Reed said.
Reed said the legislation would restore “local control” to “local elected officials.” SB7 has 28 cosponsors and has been labeled a priority bill by the Senate Republican caucus. Republicans hold a supermajority in both chambers.
“It’s the answer to the outcry of Kentuckians from across the state … people who are sick and tired of long drives, long lines and a broken system,” Reed said.
In 2020 a law shifted driver’s licensing from circuit court clerks to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, which led to the regional office system. The move helped Kentucky comply with federal requirements to offer Real ID driver’s licenses. The Beshear administration said it would provide “greater security of personal identification.”
Years later, “you have two basic problems,” said cosponsor and Senate Transportation Committee Chair Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon. “In the urban areas, it’s hard to get an appointment. In the rural areas, you have to travel, sometimes, a great distance. Those are the issues that Sen. Reed’s bill addresses and takes care of.”
He is not making a budget request on the bill, Reed said, because it is not a mandatory move for counties. Higdon said there will be a budget request for equipment.
“There’s a $25 convenience fee that goes along with getting your driver’s license done in the county,” Reed said. “So if you don’t want to pay that fee, you can still go to the regional offices, which will still be open.” The fees collected will stay in the office conducting the renewals, he said, to offset any expenses.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced last week that he appointed Jeremy Slinker to work as deputy secretary for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, primarily focused on “improving processes at Driver Licensing Regional Offices.”
Beshear said Slinker’s past experience with the Kentucky State Police, emergency management, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and more gives him “the background to root out any wrongdoing.”
“There’s been significant progress made in driver licensing and developing new processes and being innovative,” Slinker said during Beshear’s weekly press conference. “But we can always be better. Every day we can be better than yesterday and that’s what we’re going to strive to do.”
Reed said he hadn’t seen the news of Slinker’s appointment, but “the results of what’s gone on in the past kind of speaks for itself. The people of Kentucky have demanded for us to fix this issue.”
He said he had not spoken with the Beshear administration “directly” but “I can assure you that they all agree that there is an issue and this bill will be a great opportunity for them to fix it.”
Naitore Djigbenou, a public affairs official in the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, said in an email that the cabinet had lowered wait times at regional licensing centers to an average of 11 minutes in December, down from 49 minutes in April.
“We remain committed to enhancing services and ensuring consistency and compliance across the 35 regional offices we operate,” Djigbenou’s email stated.
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Meanwhile in the House, Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge filed House Bill 162, which would again give local circuit clerks the duties to issue driver’s licenses. Her bill had more than a dozen Republican co-sponsors as of Tuesday.
After introducing the legislation last week, Maddox wrote on social media that the “current regional office model has proven to be a significant failure, creating unnecessary burdens for our citizens and undermining the efficiency of a once-effective system.”
“For nearly a century, our circuit clerks successfully managed the issuance and renewal of driver’s licenses, providing a local, accessible, and reliable service to Kentuckians,” Maddox said. “However, the shift to a regional model has led to long wait times, travel hardships, and a lack of accountability. Citizens from across the commonwealth — rural, urban, and suburban alike — are demanding change, and it’s our duty to listen.”
Reed said he had not read her bill. His legislation is scheduled for a hearing in Wednesday morning’s transportation committee.
