BELLEVILLE — The Illinois Secretary of State's decision not to send license plate renewal reminders has earned the state more than twice the amount of late fees so far this year compared to last year.

The Belleville News-Democrat reports that so far this year the state has collected $9.5 million in late license plate fees, compared with $4.3 million during the same period last year. Illinois Secretary of State's spokesman Dave Druker says there have been about 476,550 late fees collected so far this year compared with about 214,500 during the same time last year.

The state stopped sending renewal notices in the mail in October, saying it couldn't afford the $450,000 in monthly postage costs due to the lack of a state budget.

Druker says about 2.3 million drivers are signed up to receive e-mail renewal reminders.