Massachusetts License Renewal | Snopes.com

Claim:   Massachusetts is no longer mailing notifications for driver's license renewals.

The RMV will no longer mail out the following materials to customers:

used to seeing certain types of notices arrive in our mailboxes regularly — aside from monthly credit card statements and water/gas/electricity bills, every year or two the mail brings us

income tax forms, voter materials for upcoming elections, automobile registration renewals, etc. One common type of mailing won't be arriving in mailboxes of Massachusetts residents any

more, however: renewal notification for about-to-expire driver's licenses.

As of 3 November 2008, the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) will no longer be sending out notices to residents reminding them to renew their driver's licenses. Statewide cuts

and spending controls announced by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick in October 2008 slashed $2 million from the RMV's budget, so the RMV has eliminated mailing license renewal reminders

and other courtesy notices in an effort to save money (in this case an estimated $800,000):

The reductions will be spread across almost all sectors of state government, biting deeply into state university campuses and community colleges, the state's health insurance programs, and

dozens of social service programs — from assistance for at-risk teens to services for the mentally ill and the elderly.

As noted in a "Message from Registrar Kaprielian on RMV Budget Cuts" displayed on the Massachusetts