Looks like all the area sheriffs who were overcharging for licenses have agreed to stop, and will issue the state mandated 25 dollar license. They will also keep issuing the plastic ones for a higher price, but it looks like that might change when the uniform standards are announced.
I’m asking the Snowflakes in Hell research division to find out for me any information we can report about the new standards that might be put in place, to see what changes it may portend for your average LTC holder. I will report when there’s more information.
In this day and age of billions of credit cards, microchips in passports, and RFID tags on our clothes, can you explain how a plastic card costs anything more than 25 cents more than a piece of paper?
And who was the numbskull in PA who thought that paper licenses would be a good idea?
The research division is finding itself stuck in a bureaucratic phone tree that seems designed to avoid allowing taxpayers to contact their government at all costs.
Hopefully, the “standards” will allow both types. Many years back I needed a copy of my birth certificate – and was given a choice between a full-sized copy, roughly 8×7 inches, or a credit-card size for a buck more.
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“can you explain how a plastic card costs anything more than 25 cents more than a piece of paper?
It’s not the plastic, it is the equipment to print-and-seal the information.
Of course, government can mess that up too. An ID from one agency cost me two dollars, the same ID from another agency cost over ten. Go figure.
Well, NJ issues paper FIDs that are significantly oversize from wallet cards – which makes them a pain to laminate cheap (and to store in the wallet, for that matter).
Plus, they’re lifetime and a pain to replace. Bah.
The article is incorrect. After November 10, 2010, the fee should be *$20.00* across the state. The temporary fee of $5.00 that went to the state treasury’s “Modernization Account” is set to expire. This money has been collected for 5 years, and was then available for grants back to counties to fund whatever needed to be done to be compliant with the new “modernization” standards.
I fully expect that this will prompt a call for higher fees statewide to cover the “increased costs” of the licensing process, even though some counties have been issuing the plastic-type licenses for years, and only charging the $25.00 fee permitted by statute.