Glitches postpone launch of DNR licensing app before fishing opener
The list of highly promoted rollouts of state government websites that have crashed and burned over the years runs long. The disastrous 2013 MNsure website debut cost the executive director her job, followed by the backlash against the years-late, $100 million over budget Minnesota Licensing and Registration System (MNLARS), and last year’s meltdown within minutes of going live of the Department of Revenue website to give away taxpayer-funded e-bikes.
Now the Star Tribune hints there may be another online foul-up in the making at the Department of Natural Resources. The timing couldn’t be worse with the fishing opener just around the corner.
Minnesota anglers who want to fish anytime soon are still going to need paper licenses despite last year’s assurance by the Department of Natural Resources that outdoors licenses and registrations would go digital well before opening day.
The agency has been working on the $3.5 million project since 2021 and last year hired a former head of the DNR’s Fish and Wildlife Division to solve potential problems and provide leadership for the system’s final development. Still, the DNR and its project partners, Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) and PayIt Outdoors, a private vendor, failed to deliver by its March 4 deadline.
No one’s saying much about what’s caused the delay or exactly when the apparent problems will be resolved. Only a vague target date to get online sometime this year, despite previous assurances everything was expected to be up and running by now.
The DNR’s Kelly Straka, who was promoted to Fish and Wildlife Division director in early July 2024, said it was her call to pause the new system’s kickoff. She said she’s relatively new to the project.
Over the winter, many things were still being tested and refined and she lost confidence in meeting the deadline with a fully proven, functional system, she said.
“We ran up against the clock,” Straka said. “Are we racing to a finish line when we are not really feeling ready?”
Once up and running, the DNR app will handle tens of millions of dollars in transactions a year and make life easier for everyone. Minnesota is widely acknowledged to lag well behind other states in streamlining the licensing process online.
Russ Francisco, owner of Marine General, a fishing goods store in Duluth, said retailers across the state who sell licenses for the DNR have only been told the system won’t be ready for the May 10 statewide fishing opener.
“All we are hearing right now is that the system didn’t work,” Francisco said. “We’ve been waiting for how many years now?
The DNR and Minnesota IT Services continue to collaborate with PayIT Outdoors, a company with extensive experience in developing electronic licensing systems for other states. For now, the project remains on budget.
Chris Willard, general manager of outdoors at PayIt, declined to be interviewed. He said in a statement that the company has been “partnering closely” with the DNR and MNIT to reschedule the launch. “When ready, the DNR will communicate our mutually agreed launch date.”
Straka said the DNR is “not expecting any additional budget” to cover state salaries and other project-related expenses. PayIt’s compensation will come from transaction fees.
Clearly state officials have decided it’s less painful to take heat for an embarrassing delay than to take a chance on getting burned by an app that’s not ready for prime time. Perhaps in time for deer hunting season?