The Haines Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office will remain open this coming fiscal year, according to a letter from acting commissioner for the Alaska Department of Administration Amanda Holland.
In December, when Gov. Mike Dunleavy released his budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning July 1, it included closure of DMV offices in Haines, Tok, Valdez, Eagle River, Homer and Delta Junction.
The proposal received bipartisan pushback from state legislators. They said it placed an unfair burden on residents in rural towns who would be forced either to travel to other towns or contract the services of a private vendor for DMV activities requiring in-person visits. Unlike the other five communities, the nearest DMV offices to Haines, Skagway and Juneau can only be accessed by plane or ferry at present.
Although legislators removed the proposal to close the DMVs from recent drafts of the budget, some worried the governor could still exercise his veto authority and remove the offices from the final version of the budget. Holland’s letter offers assurance that this won’t happen.
“(The department) will respect the decision the legislative body has made,” she wrote in the letter addressed to Anchorage Democrat Rep. Zack Fields. Holland inherited the DMV closure proposal from her predecessor Kelly Tshibaka, who resigned in late March to run against Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the 2022 election.
The Department of Administration didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.