Fee won’t be phased out

Drivers must pay full amount until it is dropped by July 1, 2021

Arizona drivers will continue to pay a $32 vehicle registration fee for the next two years rather than see a gradual phase-out before the fee’s repeal.

Arizona drivers, don’t say goodbye to that $32 vehicle-registration fee just yet.

Motorists will continue to pay the full amount for the next two years rather than seeing a gradual phase-out before the fee’s repeal, state officials confirmed Monday.

“The fee will remain at $32 for fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2021 … then drops to $0 by July 1, 2021,” Governor’s Office spokesman Patrick Ptak said via email.

The Department of Transportation does not plan to pro-rate registration fees for drivers who must renew before the fee is repealed, however.

For example, a driver whose registration is up in December 2020 would pay the full $32 fee upon renewing for one year, even though the fee would disappear halfway through that person’s registration period.

The planned elimination of the unpopular public-safety fee, which for months had angered drivers and lawmakers alike, emerged from a drawnout budget stalemate last month.

Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, who pushed for a repeal in the Senate, refused to vote for any budget plan that didn’t address the fee.

A five-year phase-down deal reached by Gov. Doug Ducey’s office and Republican leadership in the Legislature failed to appease the Scottsdale Republican, whose vote was critical in GOP budget talks. And the two-year phase-down she countered with initially went nowhere.

But after a few days of gridlock, Ugenti-Rita announced she had reached a deal with Ducey to get rid of the “very unpopular” and “very unnecessary” fee by July 2021.

At the time, she did not elaborate on what would happen to the fee between now and then.

The details later were published in state budget documents.

The Legislature passed a bill creating the public-safety fee — and giving the director of the Arizona Department of Transportation the authority to set it — last April.

State Rep. Noel Campbell, R-Prescott, sponsored the legislation because

he wanted a permanent funding source for the highway patrol.

For years, lawmakers had covered highway-patrol needs by taking money collected for road repairs, a strategy that left roads and bridges crumbling. The fee was intended to cover the highway patrol budget.

At the time, state officials estimated the fee would cost $18 and generate about $149 million. ADOT later announced the fee would be nearly double that amount, providing an updated revenue estimate of $185 million.

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