Starting Tuesday, an initial wave of fee increases for motor vehicle and driver services will go into effect.
The higher fees were part of the transportation law that passed last year, which allots $2.35 billion to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to roads, bridges and transit systems. That price tag is being paid for, in part, by an increase in gasoline taxes and higher vehicle service fees.
“The fee for an identification card will increase from $13.50 to $27.50,” said PennDOT spokeswoman Jan McKnight. “Duplicate driver’s licenses and IDs from $13.50 to $27.50, certificates of title from $22.50 to $50.00 and that’s for initial and duplicates.”
Other fees increases going into effect April 1 include:
- Driver information costs from $5 to $8
- A certified driving record from $10 to $30
- Title security interest liens from $5 to $23
- Vehicle information requests by $3 to $8
- Dealer notifications will now cost $5
“These fees have not gone up in 17 years, for the most part, and I know right now it’s painful but the benefit will be worth it – fixing our highways, fixing our bridges,” said McKnight.
Another wave of fee increases will take effect on July 1, including higher fees for vanity license plates.
“If you, for example, want a license plate that has your last name, your first name, some favorite saying, that’s going from $20.00 to buy the plate to $76.00 to purchase the plate,” said McKnight. “That’s in conjunction with the normal registration fees that you would be paying.”
Other summer fee increases include:
- Transfer of registration from $6.00 to $9.00
- Dealer registration plate from $36.00 to $52.00
- Ambulance, taxi and hearse registrations from $54.00 to $77.00
Starting in fiscal year 2015-2016 vehicle registration and drivers’ license fees will begin to increase as well. A basic passenger car currently costs $36.00 to register, it will rise to $38.00 by July 2019; a drivers’ license will go from the current $21.00 to $23.00.
The fees will be used for projects across the commonwealth. In Allegheny County, the projects include a $34 million rehabilitation of the Birmingham Bridge and $87 million in bridge and pavement work along eight miles of I-376, from the Business 60 interchange to the Flaugherty Run Interchange. Many projects funding through the transportation bill are set to start this spring.
