State officials seek more funding for malfunctioning MNLARS, but transportation chair unimpressed

Republican lawmakers directed their ire again Tuesday towards the flubbed rollout of the state’s new motor vehicle licensing and registration system — and those overseeing attempts to fix it — as two state agencies seek additional funding to get the technology fully operational.

State officials said last week they need $10 million by Thursday to continue work on fixing the glitch-addled system, called MNLARS. Without the funding — part of an additional $43 million they have said is needed — efforts to iron out the new system’s many faults will grind to a halt, they said.

“Without the requested funding, it will have a crippling effect on the progress we are making,” MN.IT Commissioner Johanna Clyborne told the House Transportation Finance Committee.

Republican House members, however, don’t appear in the mood to rush more funds to the agency.

WATCH House Republican news conference on MNLARS funding request

Rep. Paul Torkelson (R-Hanska), the committee chair, told officials he wanted more information on how they have managed to already more than double the unfinished system’s original price tag. He has introduced a plan to allocate $10 million by directing executive branch agencies to find the funds within their existing budgets.

“I just can’t accept this demand without having a detailed understanding of what’s involved in the process or proposal,” Torkelson said during an afternoon news conference. He suggested during Tuesday’s hearing that administration officials take the funding request up with House Speaker Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) “because I feel it’s above my pay grade.”

READ MORE Lawmakers, registrars sound off on rollout of new motor vehicle licensing system

Officials from MN.IT and the Department of Public Safety, the two agencies heading the implementation of MNLARS, have admitted that a review of its botched rollout has shown the system was not ready to go live when it went public last July. That has caused huge inconveniences for deputy registrars across the state and the customers trying to secure titles, tabs and license plates for their vehicles.

Kelly Davison, the owner of a deputy registrar’s office in Prior Lake, told the committee that many businesses like hers “are in dire straits right now” because of MNLARS’ many malfunctions.

WATCH House DFL news conference on MNLARS funding request

But she also told lawmakers that the last thing registrars like her want is for state agencies to be forced to cut agency staff and contracted workers who are trying to fix the bugs dogging the system.

“If they cut staff it’ll be even worse,” she said.

Though MNLARS still isn’t working to its full intended capabilities, state officials contend that progress has been made as state officials work simultaneously to improve the system and assess what went so wrong in its rollout.

Clyborne, who assumed her role as MN.IT commissioner this month, said more than 18,000 daily transactions are being made with MNLARS, and that its backlog of unissued titles has been reduced from 380,000 to 210,000.