PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – Florida lawmakers are looking at solutions for long lines and canceled appointments at driver’s license locations in Miami-Dade and Broward counties and are likely to allocate millions to help fix it.
Local 10 News has been reporting on the ongoing issue, which continued Thursday at the office in Pembroke Pines.
This scenario repeats every day at most, if not all, Miami-Dade and Broward driver’s licensing offices and has for months.
Murat Chaimerdenov, originally from Kazakhstan and in line Thursday, asked, “Why can’t you make it online? Super high technology country, but what’s going on?”
The mounting frustration has indeed reached Tallahassee.
“We know it exists and we’re working on it,” said Florida Senate President Ben Albritton. He and the House Speaker are leading decisions on how the state will spend its money.
“In our budget development process, we’re working closely with the Department of Motor Vehicles, and we’re looking at enhancing those systems down there with several million dollars of support,” Albritton said.
The several million dollars have yet to be detailed.
However, Miami-Dade and Broward tax collectors, who will take over this process from the state next year, are already planning.
But help won’t happen before the May 7 deadline to ensure you have a REAL ID-compliant license with a star to get on a flight or for those who need immediate appointments for an expiring license.
“In my country, Kazakhstan, you can make it online, in an app. You don’t need to come here,” Chaimerdenov said. “What’s going on?”
DMV officials say that the lines and the crowds are because so many people are coming into the state, but that doesn’t explain why they haven’t redone the logistics to take care of that.
That aside, at least help is on the way, even though it’s going to be probably a year from now before it arrives.
