Columbus, OH – Greg R. Lawson, research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, submitted written testimony (see full text below or download a PDF) to the Ohio House Transportation and Public Safety Committee on the policies in House Bill 372, which would save taxpayers time and money by renewing driver’s license and identification cards every eight years rather than every four.

In his testimony, Lawson noted that, “The Buckeye Institute has long supported efforts to streamline government and make Ohio a more inviting place to live and work,” and he pointed out that time it takes to get a driver’s license or ID card renewed “represents lost wages, real earnings, and less money at the end of the workweek.”

The reprieve on renewing licenses and ID cards, Lawson wrote, “will shorten lines and decrease wait time for tens of thousands of Ohioans,” and “lifts a small, but meaningful government burden, and helps give real time and money back to Ohio workers.”

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Saving Taxpayers Time and Money

Interested Party Testimony
Ohio House Transportation and Public Safety Committee
House Bill 372

Greg R. Lawson, Research Fellow
The Buckeye Institute
December 10, 2019

Written Testimony as Submitted

Chairman Green, Vice Chair McClain, Ranking Member Sheehy, and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony regarding House Bill 372. 

My name is Greg R. Lawson and I am the research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, an independent research and educational institution—a think tank—whose mission is to advance free-market public policy in the states. 

The Buckeye Institute has long supported efforts to streamline government and make Ohio a more inviting place to live and work. House Bill 372 does just that.

Everyone dreads the hassle of renewing their driver’s license. I renewed my license earlier this year and spent over an hour and a half in line at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) office in Westerville. And I, of course, wasn’t alone. Words that might describe the local BMV experience: Hassle. Inconvenient. Slow, bureaucratic nightmare. But for non-salaried Ohioans who get paid by the hour, waiting at the BMV is more than a gameshow answer or the punchline to a bad political joke. It represents lost wages, real earnings, and less money at the end of the workweek.  

House Bill 372 numbs some of that recurring pain by allowing commercial drivers and the majority of Ohio’s driving public between 21 and 65 to renew their driver’s license every eight years rather than every four. That reprieve on renewals will shorten lines and decrease wait time for tens of thousands of Ohioans. Time is money, as the old saying goes, and less time spent standing in the BMV is worth its proverbial weight in gold.

Enacting House Bill 372 would help Ohio join Kentucky, West Virginia, and half of her sister states that already allow or require license renewals every eight years. In fact, in Arizona—that cutting-edge state that wisely passed universal occupational licensing reciprocity—driver’s licenses do not expire until the driver is 65 years old.

House Bill 372 lifts a small, but meaningful government burden, and helps give real time and money back to Ohio workers.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony.

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