Cash-strapped MVD stalling online license renewals

From the Santa Fe New Mexican - by Kate Nash - The wait in line at Motor Vehicle Division offices across New Mexico usually is pretty long. The delay isn’t quite as long, however, as the amount of time state Sen. Phil Griego, D-San Jose, has been waiting for the agency to implement a law intended to help do away with those lines. Griego in 2010 carried a bill that would allow many residents to renew a driver’s license online and skip the in-person waiting game. But the division hasn’t had the cash to make the law a reality. “My frustration is the bill was introduced two years ago,” Griego said this week. “Why were we not informed they were having problems?” he said. Part of the problem, Taxation and Revenue Department spokesman S.U. Mahesh said, is that officials in the Motor Vehicle Division have been swamped with other federally mandated projects, including a new commercial driver’s license system. Staff in the division also recently have been working on a project to electronically scan all documents related to first-time applications for licenses, registration and titles. On top of that, Mahesh said, the department doesn’t have the estimated $2 million to $3 million to implement the online license renewal system. Still, he said, the project remains a priority “given its benefits to greatly improve customer service and reduce wait times in our field offices.” Currently, the department is exploring cost-effective possibilities, including designing and implementing this service with the use of internal [information technology] staff,” he said. The division doesn’t have a timeline yet for the project, Mahesh said, but hopes to make a decision about it this summer. Read more

Cash-strapped MVD stalling online license renewals