Instead, in the six months since, chronic ORION outages have hampered tax collectors\u2019 abilities to serve as DMV agents.<\/p>\n
In Pasco County Tax Collector Mike Fasano’s <\/a>view, FLHSMV leadership isn\u2019t considering how these breakdowns affect their constituents.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t seem to stress enough to those in the department that what goes on trickles down to this front line,\u201d Fasano said. \u201cThey hide up in Tallahassee, and they put the onus on us to explain everything to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n Tax collectors told WUSF the state\u2019s vague communications mean they know very little about when service will return to normal.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, Hillsborough County residents waited in the heat for two hours to enter the University Square tax collection branch.<\/p>\n With ORION down, agents couldn\u2019t process new tickets and turned some customers away at the door. An email notice to tax collectors said \u201can unusually high volume of requests\u201d had entered their cashiering system.<\/p>\n Laura Sorrell came in to renew her concealed carry permit, but walked away empty-handed.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t get it done, because their system is down,\u201d Sorrell said. \u201cThey are just having trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n Sorrell had met an elderly woman who had to renew her driver\u2019s license by midnight, but she wasn\u2019t physically able to wait in line for two hours.<\/p>\n An overhead announcement directed customers to the MyDMV website<\/a> for certain driver\u2019s licenses services. Meanwhile, staff showed customers how to use drop-off boxes for other needs and took down their information when computers failed.<\/p>\n However, as Reddit users<\/a> complained, the MyDMV portal is also riddled with bugs and glitches.<\/p>\n One user posted a screenshot showing Djibouti listed 30 times as an option for origin country \u2014 but no United States.<\/p>\n \u201cThe phone service is useless,\u201d a commenter wrote. \u201cThere is no reason for this except willful and malicious mismanagement.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe state won\u2019t give us the tools\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Tax collector\u2019s offices allow Floridians to renew driver\u2019s licenses, register mobile homes, and pay property taxes under one roof.<\/p>\n A former state representative, Fasano said he likes being a tax collector because it emphasizes direct, hyper-local service. When he\u2019s not at his office in Land O\u2019Lakes, he works as a front desk attendant at Pasco\u2019s other four branches.<\/p>\n SEE ALSO: Pasco County’s tax collector questions the effect of property tax reform<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n The Pasco County Tax Collector helps over 50,000 customers a month, but motor vehicle services are not a money-maker for the office. <\/p>\n With most revenue earmarked for FLHSMV, Fasano estimates his office’s registration, tag and title operations loses $4 million annually.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not complaining,” Fasano said. “I just need to let people know that we can\u2019t provide good service because the state won\u2019t give us the tools to do it.”<\/p>\n Mike Fasano has been Pasco County Tax Collector since 2013. He is frustrated by the rollout of ORION and its routine outages. <\/p>\n Joe Tedder, Polk County’s tax collector<\/a>, said outages complicate what’s supposed to be a straightforward, efficient process for Floridians.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s say that you\u2019re an elderly couple buying a mobile home park,\u201d Tedder said. \u201cYou flew in from Michigan to transfer that title. Our system is down and we\u2019ll go, \u2018We don\u2019t know, it could be back up in 10 minutes, it could be back up in 10 hours.’\u201d<\/p>\n Before the outages, Tedder says his office largely met his goal \u2014 no wait times over 20 minutes.<\/p>\n Hillsborough County Tax Collector Nancy Millan’s<\/a> office saw 12 outages in the past two months. <\/p>\n She said the state should answer for the ORION outages, explaining that her frontline staff bears the brunt of customer frustration.<\/p>\n \u201cOur reputation carries a lot of weight,\u201d Millan said. \u201cWhen things go bad, people remember that, and it\u2019s always something we have to explain \u2014 that this is completely out of our hands.\u201d<\/p>\n A May 27 social media post<\/a> stated FLHSMV \u201cis aware of ongoing performance issues,\u201d but they haven\u2019t put out any additional media releases. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Millan emphasized her staff remains dedicated to customer service, which she sees as the heart of a tax collector\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do it well, and that\u2019s why agencies have entrusted us to do that at the local level \u2014 being good stewards of taxpayers’ dollars and providing service and convenience,\u201d Millan said.<\/p>\n The ORION breakdowns coincide with other recent pressures on Florida tax collectors\u2019 work.<\/p>\n The new English-only driver\u2019s test policy<\/a> stretched wait times and increased staff workloads at some offices. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1780437308_923_.jpeg\"\/)
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