Cape Co. collector to fix glitch that prevents online renewing of plates

The Cape Girardeau County collector's office hopes residents will be able to renew and register their license plates online within a few months after a glitch in its computer software is resolved.

Since January 2002, Missouri residents have been able to register and renew their license plates online through Department of Revenue's Missouri Online Registration Exchange program.

To file online, every county collector must provide an electronic record of paid personal property taxes to the department, said Maura Browning, spokeswoman for the Department of Revenue. "Once we get that information, we can upload that into our system and allow residents of that county to file online," she said.

Cape Girardeau County Collector Diane Diebold said county residents were able to participate in the MORE program, which went into effect in 2002.

"We were able to send the property tax information on a tape back then," Diebold said.

But last year the state required counties to send the information electronically. The Cape Girardeau County collector's office computer software, which is close to 20 years old, won't properly send the property tax records, Diebold said.

"We just can't figure out what's wrong with it. For some reason when it's sent, the data gets messed up," she said.

The collector's office hopes to have the glitch resolved after a software vendor looks at the program in a couple of months.

"If it's not working by then, we'll be shopping for some new software, but that will be very costly," Diebold said.

Cape Girardeau County is the only first-class county unable to renew or register through the Department of Revenue's MORE program.

Browning said renewing online saves residents a trip to the motor vehicle office. A processing fee of 3 percent is added for transactions under $100. The fee percentage decreases for transactions more than $100.

"We are working on this problem and not ignoring it. I want the program to be available, and certainly the citizens in the county deserve to have the service available," Diebold said.

jfreeze@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246