South Carolina DMV seeks $100 million modernization; proposes fee change tied to proviso 82.2

South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles Director Shwedo told the Senate Finance Committee’s Transportation Regulatory Subcommittee that the DMV needs an additional $42.73 million in nonrecurring funding and about $7 million in recurring annual funds to complete a planned $100 million modernization of its IT systems.

Shwedo said the department has roughly $44 million appropriated and on hand but cannot obligate those carryforward dollars to a single large contract because of federal/state contracting rules and the Anti-Deficiency Act. He told senators that changing Proviso 82.2 — the proviso that caps certain DMV product fees at the rates charged in February 2001 — would let the DMV retain revenue above the $6 baseline for specific products and use the difference to fund modernization and sustainment costs. "We need 42.73 additional million of nonrecurring dollars, and then to sustain the system over time, it would require $7,000,000 recurring once it was up and operating," Shwedo said.

Why it matters: Shwedo said the DMV’s systems run on legacy code and that modernization is a multi-year effort with security…