The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is closing 31 satellite driver’s license offices due to budget cuts to the department’s general fund budget.

People in Selma and Dallas County won’t be affected by the cuts because the Selma driver’s license office is not on the list of offices that are closing, but offices in Lowndes, Perry and Wilcox counties that are not owned by the state will be closed.

“We got an $11 million cut in the general fund appropriation, which is basically eliminating those part-time, non-state owned satellite locations,” said Corporal Jesse Thornton with ALEA.

“Effective as of today (Wednesday) those driver’s license examiners that were driving to those offices will be reallocated to staff the district office they worked out of.”

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency prepared for the worst when it released a plan several weeks ago to handle potential budget cuts from the legislature, but the Thornton said the cuts are less than expected.

“We got a budget. It’s not a great budget by any means,” Thornton said. “But it is not terrible either, so we found a way to basically not shut down any driver’s license offices that are ALEA owned. Basically, any of the district offices that [people] are accustomed to, we’re not shutting down any of those offices.”

ALEA originally prepared to close every office in the state except for ones in Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile and Montgomery.

“The closings that we announced were a possibility … looking at the worst case scenario if we got a very severe cut in our budget that was upwards at one time of 40-something percent,” Thornton said. “If that would have happened, then we probably would have had to shut down some driver’s license offices.”

Thornton said the 31 offices that are being closed are in rural communities and are not owned by the state. Those offices made getting a driver’s license or renewing one more convenient for people in rural areas.

“We were basically trying to make things as convenient as possible for the public as far as getting a driver’s license renewed or whatever the case may be, and we had some remote satellite locations where we would take equipment to and issue driver’s license to people across the state,” Thornton said.

“Those were not ALEA owned locations. We would have to take a driver’s license examiner from one of the local district offices, and he or she would have to drive to that area. We were doing that as a convenience … so what we’re doing is we’re no longer going to operate at the satellite locations, and that examiner will be utilized at the local officer that he or she worked at anyway full-time instead of going to these remote locations.”

The cuts are part of the general fund budget that was passed by state lawmakers. ALEA’s budget went from $55,758,744 to $44,640,937.

Thornton said technological advancements and the addition of online services for driver’s licenses will be beneficial to people who are affected by the closing of the satellite offices. Thornton said more than 40,000 transactions for driver’s licenses have taken place online since the system was recently implemented.