Sad as government should be building this out. Heck I’d argue this is perfect for a public university to partner on, providing students a real-life (but low risk) way to build production services in prep for joining the workforce.
And, at the local (say town) level that's probably true. So what happens is they farm it out to an existing service for "free" and the service tacks on a fee. As a result, I either write a physical check or have my bank do so for town fees because if I paid directly online I'd pay a surcharge.