House and Senate budget negotiators have agreed to restore most, but not all, of the funding for Missouri’s Motor Vehicles division within the Department of Revenue.
House Budget Chairman Rick Stream says they’ve restored funding for only eight months, through February of next year, and that getting the rest of the funding will depend on whether they change their policy of scanning and storing source documents for driver’s license applicants:
“They need to stop that…it’s all part of the big picture of this whole plan of sending a message to DOR and the (Nixon) administration that we didn’t like what was being done with scanning of documents and sending information out of state." said Stream.
Stream says if Revenue officials comply, then the rest of the DMV’s funding would be included in next year’s supplemental budget. The State Senate last month (April) completely de-funded the Motor Vehicles division over its scanning policy, and for releasing the state’s entire list of conceal carry holders to a federal investigator. Governor Nixon last month ordered the agency to stop scanning documents for conceal carry applicants, but not for those seeking driver’s licenses and other licenses.