In the 2015-2016 budget proposal released by Gov. Jerry Brown on Jan. 9, there’s an allocation of $15.5 million to build a new Department of Motor Vehicles office in Santa Maria.
That money would be doled out for the new office in installments, with $2.6 million in 2015-2016 and similar allotments over the ensuing four years.
The influx comes after a letter state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) wrote to the governor in October 2014, urging new office funding because the Santa Maria DMV has long lines, three-hour wait times, and serves a community that has tripled in size since the office was built in 1969.
“I’m very pleased to see this funding included in the governor’s budget proposal,” Jackson said in press release. “A new office is long overdue. I will keep a close eye on this funding to ensure it remains in the final budget that the Legislature passes in June.”
Jackson told the Sun that passage of AB 60, and the expected influx of new driver’s license applicants because of it, will only exacerbate the issues at the Santa Maria office, which she said is already way too small and doesn’t have enough manpower to serve the community of 100,000 people. AB 60, which passed in 2013, allowed undocumented immigrants to begin applying for a California driver’s licenses on Jan. 2, 2015.
The discussion involving the DMV office’s constraints has been going on since before Jackson took her Senate seat, she said.
“But they haven’t had any money or anticipation of money until this year,” she added. “So that’s good news.”
However, the money allocation is just a proposal at this point and needs to be passed by the state Legislature later this year. Jackson said she’s confident that the money will stay in the proposal.
“When we go through to revise the budget in May, it’s usually to add the money, not subtract,” she said.
This article appears in Jan 15-22, 2015.