Some Connecticut residents seeking to schedule driving tests are reporting lengthy waits after the state began offering licenses to undocumented immigrants earlier this year.
"We did create a marketplace for licenses for a whole group of people who were previously denied that [and] that's going to have an impact and they need to manage it the best they can,'' Malloy said during a press conference at the state Capitol complex, when he was asked about the wait times.
"I think this is one of those things that you simply have to power through,'' he said. "You've got to get the backlog taken care of and you've got to do it as rapidly as you can.''
The DMV is poised to embark on an ambitious $25 million modernization effort that will ultimately offer Connecticut motorists online access to a variety of services, including registration renewal and cancellation.
In order to install the new software needed to provide such services, the DMV will be closed from Aug. 11 to 15. Licenses will still be available during this time period at all DMV and AAA offices, but other services, including registration renewals, will be unavailable. (The department is extending expiration deadlines for renewals of both driver’s license and vehicle registrations.)
Several other states, including Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Maine and Montana, have undergone similar modernization efforts, and Connecticut DMV officials have consulted with their counterparts in those states.
The governor said the technological improvements are needed to make the DMV more user-friendly. "What we have been doing is spending the last five years trying to get out from underneath what has been a terrible lack of investment in technology that would allow our citizens to do from home what citizens from other states can do from home.
"Part of what were going to do at DMV is substantially increase the number of transactions that someone does not have to go to the DMV to conduct,'' Malloy said.
©2015 The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
