Sen. Carla Nelson: MNLARS Mayhem
Over the last half year, if you have purchased a vehicle or renewed your license plate tabs, you have probably experienced Minnesota’s new automotive licensing system, MNLARS. And, if your experience was anything like mine, you might still be waiting for your vehicle tabs, license plates, or title to transfer.
For nearly a decade, Minnesota has been developing a new motor vehicle and driver’s licensing system, the Minnesota Licensing and Registration System (MNLARS). Previously to MNLARS, Minnesota operated the thirty-year-old Legacy System that still used floppy disks for data storage. Obviously, an upgrade was needed. However, after an over $90 million investment by state taxpayers, MNLARS is backlogged with over 300,000 vehicle titles. For perspective, that is about 60 times more than are processed in a single day.
Back in early August, many of you contacted my office with problems caused by the MNLARS launch. I brought your concerns to Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mona Dohman. I asked the commissioner to itemize when each identified problem would be remedied and to issue a public apology. While we all appreciate a public apology, too many Minnesota drivers and related industries still find themselves in a state of crisis.
Half a year after the botched MNLARS rollout, automobile titles are still not being transferred, new licenses plates are not being delivered to Minnesotans, and lending institutions cannot begin financing, causing problems for car dealerships and drivers.
Deputy registrars, small businesses that operate licensing centers in our communities, have been impacted severely by the botched rollout. Many are being forced to pay overtime and incur additional costs due to the state government’s failures. Once again, we have government inefficiencies and induced costs falling on the shoulders of tax paying private businesses.
It didn’t need to be this way. The state originally hired a private contractor to develop the licensing system. Unfortunately, the governor’s administration fired the contractor and turned the project over to its own government agency, MNIT. Many private businesses develop these projects faster, cheaper, and more efficiently than government.
After this debacle, the Department of Public Safety will be partnering with a private, outside vendor to roll out the driver’s licensing side of MNLARS. The vendor, FAST Enterprises, has successfully developed licensing programs in eleven other states and will help Minnesota meet the aggressive timeline for REAL ID implementation that was put in place during the 2017 legislative session.
However, problems with MNLARS persist. Minnesotans deserve to know how the Dayton administration will correct these errors and compensate our small businesses. Auto dealers, lenders, deputy registrars, and other businesses have lost valuable time and money due to government’s failures. I will continue to press the administration to fix all outstanding MNLARS issues.
The biggest takeaway from this government induced mayhem is that government is not the best provider for every service. Government must not be in the business of diverting private sector services to government run projects. Just so there is no misunderstanding: we desperately need these main street businesses – the taxes they pay, the customer service they provide, and the convenience for Minnesotans. Let’s get government out of the way of businesses and empower the private sector.
After months of inaction, Minnesotans deserve real fixes and real answers as to when those fixes will occur. On January 9th, officials with MNIT will be holding a working meeting with local stakeholders from 1-4 PM at the MNDOT Rochester office at 2900 48th St. NW. It is my hope that officials will address these issues head on and put an end to this government induced mayhem. The time is now for real action.