Drivers who renew their license tabs next month will be the first to face a decision on whether to donate $5 toward the operation of state parks, or to “opt out.”

The state Department of Licensing has redesigned its vehicle registration notices to reflect a couple changes approved by the Legislature earlier this year. It will start mailing the first of the notices in the next few days.

For one, the new billing notices will indicate that owners automatically will be charged $5 for parks unless they subtract that amount from their payment. This replaces a method that required vehicle owners to add $5 or more to their registration payment if they wanted to give money to the state Parks and Recreation system.

Secondly, in September those notices will be printed by the state printing office instead of by a private company.

“We’ve taken this opportunity to redesign the entire notice to maximize cost savings and improve the overall readability of the notice,” said Brad Benfield, licensing spokesman. “The most noticeable change is producing it without using color inks. We’ve also eliminated heavy solid bars and instead are using more ‘white space.’ We expect these changes to save taxpayers about $188,000 per year.”

Lawmakers approved the opt-out provision in the hope that half of vehicle owners would make the contribution. It is expected to generate about $22 million over the next two years.

Without it, state budget-writers said dozens of the state’s 125 parks would have faced closure, including Joemma and Kopachuck in Pierce County and Tolmie in Thurston County.

Joseph Turner: 360-786-1826

joe.turner@thenewstribune.com