Driver’s license offices could close

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Alabama’s chief law enforcement officer said Monday he will close all but the state’s four largest drivers’ license offices next year if state lawmakers don’t provide more funding than they are proposing.

Secretary of Law Enforcement Spencer Collier told a press conference in Scottsboro that budgets proposed in the Legislature’s regular session are “unacceptable” and “unworkable.” Lawmakers must do better in the upcoming second special session on the 2016 budget, he said.

Collier said his agency received $55 million in state funding this year. Lawmakers have proposed $40 million for next year, and he wants level funding of $55 million.

Without it, 33 part-time rural drivers’ license offices will close Oct. 1, Collier said. More closures Jan. 1, 2016, will leave 12 offices statewide, and that number will drop to four on March 1 – one each in Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery and Mobile.