Tuesday, May 13, 2003 | 9:26 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Hoping to reduce the long lines for driver's licenses and registration, the Senate Finance Committee voted to provide 129 new employees for the Department of Motor Vehicles.
The majority of the employees will be added to the four major offices in Southern Nevada.
Gov. Kenny Guinn had recommended 179 new employees, but budget subcommittees trimmed that number. The action by the committee will allow 100 percent staffing at all windows of the DMV offices.
DMV Director Ginny Lewis cited a desperate need for staff at the Sahara Avenue office in Las Vegas and the Carey Avenue office in North Las Vegas. The department has not achieved the goal of reducing waiting time to one hour or less, Lewis said.
Under the formula, the Carey and Flamingo Road offices will receive 31 new staffers each, Henderson will get 25 and Sahara 19.
Lewis said the average wait time at Southern Nevada offices was 73 minutes, but she conceded that some people might wait two and three hours.
A kiosk will be placed in the Carey office in an experiment to see if customers who have cash or credit card transactions will conduct their business at the machines rather than waiting in line.
In other action the committee voted to draft a bill to impose an extra $1 on motorists when they get their annual smog checks in Clark and Washoe counties.
Fiscal analysts for the Legislature told the committee that there had been a miscalculation of $400,000 per year in the amount of money the state Pollution Control account had estimated to collect in each of the next two fiscal years.
That means the budget for this program will be $300,000 in the hole at the end of the coming biennium.
Adding $1 to the vehicle emission fee will produce about $1.2 million extra each year of the coming biennium.
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