Analysis: Lawmakers chilly toward fee hikes

Warning to any state agency trying to plug a budget gap with price hikes on services to citizens: tread carefully — or maybe just reconsider altogether.

Fee increases take a hefty two-thirds vote of lawmakers, and many of the legislators don't seem all that interested in offsetting Louisiana's money woes by charging more to residents.

An unexpected 70 percent jump in the price of a state driver's licenses enacted by the Jindal administration set off a firestorm of complaints from lawmakers, and now they're threatening to repeal the price hike and create a $13 million budget hole for the Department of Public Safety.

The criticism could chill any efforts to boost other fees in state agencies as a way to avoid cuts to services. It also could be read as a looming threat to Gov. Bobby Jindal's proposal that lawmakers give up their authority over college tuition and fee increases.

"I think it will begin to feed on itself. You get one big, heated battle over one fee, like a $15 (driver's license) fee, that will bleed off onto the other fees," said Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton.

Maybe it's that the Jindal administration shouldn't have started with a price hike that hits so many, more than 2 million drivers in the state. Or maybe the administration shouldn't have started with a boost so high, nearly doubling the cost of a driver's license. Or maybe it wouldn't have mattered where the debate began at all.

But lawmakers say the atmosphere for fee increases has grown toxic since the $15 price jump in the cost of a Louisiana driver's license. Legislators say they've been battered by criticism in their district, as residents call the increase inappropriate in the current economy.

A new or renewed basic license now costs $36.50 for four years, under the price hike set by the Louisiana State Police two weeks ago. The charge to drivers is nearly the highest in the South, second only to the $48 cost of a driver's license in Florida.

Sen. Joe McPherson, D-Woodworth, referenced Jindal's anti-tax, scrub-the-budget rhetoric.

"We had a budget problem, and we talked about, 'We're going to tighten our budgets like hardworking American families.' And state police, rather than cutting its budget by $13 million, decided, 'We're going to impose a tax or a fee on driver's licenses,'" said McPherson, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.

At least two lawmakers have proposed bills to reverse the price increase. Jindal's budget proposal for next year includes the license cost increase, so scrapping the price hike would create a hole in the budget and force lawmakers to make other cuts to rebalance it.

Col. Mike Edmonson, head of the Department of Public Safety that oversees the state motor vehicles office, said the cost increase covers a federal mandate requiring the state to participate in a national driver's license registry. Edmonson said the system helps protect against identity theft and fraud.

The justification didn't seem to make much headway with many of the members of the House and Senate transportation committees, when Edmonson was asked to defend the price hike last week.

"There are many people who have already lost their jobs, and there are many people who are already struggling," said Rep. Barbara Norton, D-Shreveport. She added, "I just don't see how I can go back to my district and say, 'I know you all can afford this.'"

That argument is likely to be repeated for other fee proposals as well, including Jindal-backed legislation to let the state's public colleges substantially raise what they charge their students if colleges meet certain performance standards.

Adley said he's still undecided about that proposal, sought by university leaders around the state as a way to offset some of the recent rounds of hefty budget cuts.

"The tuition thing is going to be very difficult. I want to do what I can to help my universities on the one hand, but on the other hand I don't just like this idea of carte blanche feeing people to death," he said.