Gov. Mike Pence is launching an internal audit of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and is seeking legislation to streamline the agency's fee structures amid revelations it overcharged motorists another $2 million over six years.
Pence's announcement Monday brings to more than $60 million the amount that the state agency has acknowledged overcharging Indiana motorists.
The BMV said in September that it had overcharged motorists nearly $29 million in excise taxes. In 2013, it settled a class-action lawsuit that claimed it overcharged customers by $30 million.
Pence says the latest overcharges will be refunded.
Pence has named Indiana Department of Environmental Management chief of staff Kent Abernathy to oversee the BMV as the agency's new commissioner. He succeeds Don Snemis, who is moving to the Family and Social Services Administration. Abernathy is a former U.S. Army Colonel who served as interim director of the U.S. Central Command Washington Liason Office. He is a former Vice President of Bank One (now JP Morgan Chase) and Vice President of National City Bank (now PNC) ran Eagle Advisors, a consulting business in Carmel.
