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Ooooh man, if you think a DMV site is contracted for 100k-1 million, I have some very, very bad news for you.


That’s not what I said but okay. In Illinois, for example, vehicle registration is handled by ILSOS, not the DMV. Vehicle registration is just one of the many things that ILSOS handles. The entirety of the digital modernization budget for 2026 for ILSOS is (based on cursory searches) $35M. Illinois is one of the larger of the jurisdictions. And one of the higher quality web experiences, probably, as I’ve never had an issue.

Non-interactive websites (that don’t even accept payments) are undoubtedly run on a shoestring budget unless there is a specific case of grifting or corruption. In which case we’re not talking about websites anymore but American grifting culture.


Right, and a modernization can run for as long as 10 years, meaning your budget over the modernization is actually closer to 350 million. The DMV likely just contracts the services to ILSOS and gets billed a ginormous amount in contracting fees.

So you initially say 100k-1 million and then pull a 35 million dollar budget out…seems a little disconnected.




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