The first bill Gov. Tim Walz signed into law, on March 5, provides stopgap funding to continue work on information-technology systems that support a fundamental state government function — driver and vehicle services.
It was a hopeful sign to see legislative leaders and the governor come together around a pragmatic, bipartisan compromise to support continued work on the MNLARS vehicle services system. It's been more than a year and a half since the initial botched rollout of this system.
Critics have used the MNLARS system as a hammer to pound political messaging about the effectiveness of state government and the capabilities of the state's IT workforce. In the absence of successes, they were right to do so.
That said, since that rollout, both the Department of Public Safety and Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) have completely transformed the project's management structure, and the state has completed seven upgrades to address most of the deficiencies from the rollout. Our legislative leaders and the governor have recognized this progress, and we'll deliver more improvements, thanks to this funding and bipartisan support.
The state is going to need a lot more of that kind of Minnesota pragmatism if we are to address the larger set of IT challenges we face in the years ahead. Those challenges include modernizing a host of 20- to 30-year-old legacy IT systems and addressing pervasive and growing threats in the area of cybersecurity.
Modernizing state government is about transforming how we approach delivering government services — this is much more than simply implementing new technology. Some of our laws and business processes are as antiquated as our legacy IT systems, and we must examine these before massive investment in modern technology — or we'll simply pave the government cow paths that have been worn into the ground over decades.
It's also high time we break down the silos that separate the work of state agencies and the work of state vs. local government. Frankly, Minnesotans don't see any difference; it's all the government.
Going forward, we need to meet Minnesotans where they are, using the tools we have all come to rely upon in the digital age — the phones and computers that are now ever-present in our daily lives.