JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Insurance companies are threatening higher rates because of a fee increase on Missouri driver records.

Large research firms for years have been able to access the driving records of more than 4 million Missourians for less than 1 cent each — $.0003 — from the Department of Revenue.

As of May 1, however, that fee jumped to $7 per record to offset the costs of upgrades to its computer system, parts of which date back to the 1970s.

So, what used to cost an individual about $1.25 to access his or her own driving records, perhaps in light of a driving-while-intoxicated citation, now costs that Missourian $7.

And what used to cost roughly $2,035 for firms, like LexisNexis, to purchase a database of all the drivers, now costs closer to $28 million. The department has instituted no bulk pricing, which has the entities that routinely make the requests up in arms.

For example, Carfax Inc.’s information retrieval service located in Columbia makes weekly queries.

“This decision puts R. L. Polk and Carfax out of business in Missouri,” Tim Souton of R. L. Polk & Co., which represents Carfax, said Tuesday during a legislative hearing.

Insurance and other companies often buy the information to determine rates and credit scores. The increase will cause an overall $15 million to $20 million hike in rates as a result, a representative of the Concerned Insurance Coalition warned.

The chairman of a joint committee on tax policy, Sen. Brad Lager, R-Savannah, called the hearing Tuesday to receive public input on the already-instated increase and to hear an explanation from a reluctant Omar Davis, revenue director.

Mr. Davis had written Mr. Lager prior to Tuesday, asking him to close or cancel the meeting because he believed his testimony would be used in pending lawsuits over the new fees.

“Tell us about the tax increase,” Mr. Lager said to Mr. Davis, who challenged the committee’s authority to call him to testify since it was a fee increase, not a tax increase.

“As you can tell, (he’s) not overly excited about being here,” Mr. Lager said to the committee before reading the committee’s duties from state statute, which directs the committee to study proposed tax policy as it relates to “the collection and administration of state and local taxes and fees.”

Mr. Davis said the department needs the fees to create a new system to better manage the records for requests and to make it easier for the Missouri State Highway Patrol to access them. The aged system is made up of about 23 different systems. The state wants to roll them all into one.

But an attorney for the Missouri Press Association, Jean Maneke, argued Tuesday that under the Missouri Sunshine Law, the state can’t charge more than what is required for copying records — not for what it costs to produce them.

Mr. Davis disagreed, saying the driver’s records were exempt from the Sunshine Law. He dubbed the hearing as “ludicrous in my opinion ... basically telling state government how to operate.”

Rep. Shannon Cooper, R-Clinton, pledged to file legislation that would reverse the fee increase after hearing concerns from Carfax and other entities.

Mr. Lager encouraged compromise.

“We want him to be able to do the database and get him out of the ’70s, and we don’t want to put any companies out of business,” the Savannah Republican said.

Mr. Davis later told reporters the hearing was an exercise of political theater.

“There is no middle ground,” he said. “People here just don’t want to pay ... These are private companies that make a profit off of Missouri drivers’ records.”

Alyson E. Raletz can be reached at alysonraletz@npgco.com.