By Jolene FarleySince 2002 local vehicle owners have had the option of renewing their license plate tags online directly through a Department of Revenue Web site instead of at the county court house. The cost for tags is the same on the Web site, but when renewals are done online, Rock County loses the revenue generated from fees charged for each license plate renewal and title transfer.Rock County charges a $4.50 fee when license plate tags are purchased for motor vehicles at the courthouse and a $7 fee for long form applications used when transferring a vehicle title. License plate and title fees alone generated a record $66,310 for the county in 2003, up from $65,358 in 2002, according to Rock County Deputy Registrar Wanda Kafka. The office also handles driver’s license applications and renewals, boat and snowmobile licensing and hunting and fishing licenses. Rock County officials have no way to gauge how much revenue has been lost by online renewals but they suspect it is a low amount."We don’t know who sends them in," Kafka said. "I have a feeling it’s quite low for Rock County." But Kafka said if more people renew online, the county will lose money."It will be less revenue because we will not see any of the fees, everything goes directly to the state," she said. "When 100 people do that it’s quite a lot of money. … That’s the operating income for our office. The state doesn’t fund the offices with any income to operate off of."Kafka attributes the low Internet renewal rate to the fact that some in the county don’t have Internet access or a computer and some don’t like to give credit card information online.Kafka said she never knows how many renewals they will have during the year because residents aren’t required to renew their license plates in the county they live in.