Urbanna DMV site closes

The budget that the Urbanna Town Council approved on June 27 for fiscal year 2024-2025 does not contain funding for the DMV Select office, which has been in the town hall for 2.5 years.

The DMV Select’s last day was June 28.

The DMV Select has not made money as expected, and most of its expenses have been paid by the town’s tax dollars, not DMV commissions.

The Urbanna DMV Select budget for fiscal year 2023-2024, which ended on June 30, needed to be subsidized. Urbanna Mayor Bill Goldsmith explained, in a memo to the town council, that from July 1, 2023 through May 31, 2024, DMV made just $16,659. Expenses were $58,710, which gives a net loss of $42,051.

When Barry Browning, the state “DMV Select” director, was pitching the DMV Select to the town council in September 2021 he said DMV Select offices get 4.5% of the first $500,000 in gross sales, which equals $22,500 in income. Sales over $500,000 are paid a 5% commission. Under this payment schedule, $1 million in sales would result in $47,500 in income.

Urbanna’s DMV had only one employee. However, the contract with the state DMV requires a second full-time employee that would cost another $18,300, said Goldsmith. With two employees, the DMV would need to process $1.6 million in transactions, “before there is a penny of profit,” said Goldsmith in his memo to the town council..