State to present ideas for fixing registration system and costs Wednesday

The state will debut what it called a road map Wednesday for how to fix its problematic new vehicle licensing system, along with estimates of how much the repairs will cost.

Minnesota officials spent the past month traveling the state and developing the plan to fix the glitchy Minnesota Licensing and Registration System, called MNLARS.

"We could throw a road map together that just talks from a technology perspective about what we can do," said Minnesota IT Services spokeswoman Cambray Crozier. But she said gathering stakeholders' input helped them come up with a better plan.

The state spent a decade preparing to overhaul Minnesota's aging licensing system. But when officials rolled out the changes in July, they ran into a variety of problems and paperwork began to pile up.

Deputy registrars who run licensing offices found they could not transfer specialty license plates. Auto dealers and insurance companies encountered expensive paperwork delays.

One of the top priorities is fixing the vehicle licensing system's flaws, Crozier said. The state's plan will also seek to speed up the release of vehicle titles and modernize business processes, she said.

At a state Senate hearing in early January, legislators were frustrated that administrators could not yet provide a timeline for solutions or an update on what it will cost to fix the problems.

Lawmakers noted the MNLARS budget of $93 million had already ballooned to nearly double what the state had initially estimated.

The state's plan will include a timeline for when the fixes will occur and an estimate of associated costs, Crozier said.

It is based on suggestions from more than 100 stakeholders, including auto dealers and deputy registrars, according to a news release. Minnesota IT Services and state Department of Public Safety staff, who are handling the MNLARS rollout, will present the document Wednesday at the Capitol.

"That is a significant change from how it was before," Crozier said of the community engagement in the road map. She said they brought a lot of people together, listened their frustrations and ideas, and developed a plan.

Jessie Van Berkel • 651-925-5044