On Jan. 1, as 2018 turned over into 2019, the new year came with a new requirement for car owners. Because of a bill approved by the Arizona State Legislature in April, vehicles renewed in the year 2019 will include a new $32 Public Safety Fee.
The new fee is independent of the already existing registration fee of $8.25 per vehicle and the additional Vehicle License Tax, which is based on a percentage of a vehicle’s retail value. The Public Safety Fee’s revenue will be used to pay for the budget of the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s Highway Patrol.
“For the current budget year, the Highway Patrol operations budget is $185 million,” a representative of the Arizona Department of Transportation Office of Public Information wrote in an email. “By law, ADOT calculates the number of vehicle registrations that are projected to come due in the upcoming budget year [just under 6 million] and determines the fee amount, which is $32. The number of registrations applied to the fee depends on how many come due in the current year. That relies on the number of purchases of new and used vehicles, exemptions such as for vehicles owned by governments and nonprofits and the fact that some registrations come due annually while others are two- or five-year registrations.”
The fee amount will change in 2020 as ADOT undergoes new calculations in line with next year’s budget and the anticipated number of registrations for the year.
The additional fee is aimed at allowing the Highway Patrol to be fully funded without dipping into Highway User Revenue Funds [HURF], which along with federal funds, pays for ADOT maintenance work. According to ADOT, more than $900 million in HURF dollars have been used to support the Highway Patrol. Giving the patrol its own funding source is expected to allow it to be fully funded without dipping into the state’s general fund.
