LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A new Kentucky House bill filed this week aims to make wait times shorter to get a driver's license, and help not have to drive as far.
Long lines, issues getting appointments and fraud allegations at Drive Licensing Regional Offices have been hot button topics in the state for over a year.
Lines were especially long ahead of the May 2025 deadline for Kentuckians to get their REAL IDs.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said to help those lines they hired 125 more people, opened a fifth location in Louisville and added Saturday hours once a month.
Now, drivers said the lines are shorter, but it's still a long process to get an appointment.
"Once we get in the portal it has to be at 8:00 in the morning and by 8:10, 10 minutes later it wasn't available," Daniel Leon said.
State lawmakers have been trying to find a solution, which is where House Bill 126 comes into play.
Lawmakers passed a bill in 2020 for KYTC to take over issuing licenses after county clerks requested help with REAL IDs. Now, House Bill 126 could bring the service back to the counties.
"We've tried the statewide system, and it has been nothing but an unequivocal failure in every sense of the word," Rep. T.J. Roberts, who co-sponsored the bill, said.
It was filed by State Rep. Savannah Maddox, who posted on Facebook "Kentucky’s current regional office model has proven to be a significant failure, creating unnecessary burdens for our citizens and undermining the efficiency of a once-effective system. It’s time to acknowledge the mistakes of the past and take decisive action to return the issuance of driver’s licenses to each individual county, where it belongs."
In December, KYTC said 11 minutes was the average wait time for walk-in customers and those with appointments. That's down from April's wait times of 49 minutes for walk-ins and 25 for appointments. Roberts said people are still having problems.
"I had a constituent reach out to me this morning, indicating that he put in an application to renew his driver's license. It has been four months, and he has not been able to get his driver's license. That's absurd," he said.
The bill was just filed on Jan. 7. Roberts added that they're pushing for a committee hearing sooner rather than later to start the process of passing the bill.
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