The Daily Tar Heel

Issue date: 8/29/07 Section: State & National

Many states voiced strong opposition this summer to a federal measure to heighten the security of driver's licenses, yet North Carolina remains among the minority seeking compliance.

The enactment of the REAL ID Act, passed in 2005 to combat terrorism, has a flexible May 2008 deadline and is expected to cost a more than $23 billion nationwide.

During the last legislative session, many states called the act an unfunded federal mandate that intrudes on state authority.

About two-thirds of the bills generated by state legislatures in 2007 addressing the issue were anti-REAL ID, said Matt Sundeen, spokesman for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"We've seen a lot of pushback on this issue, although it hasn't all been pushback," he said.

Twenty state legislatures passed bills that were in opposition to the federal legislation; six states issued laws prohibiting any compliance with the act. Thirteen more states passed nonbinding resolutions declaring their opposition, Sundeen said.

But four states passed measures to bring their state into compliance with the act, and three states set aside funding to help compliance efforts, he added.

The latest N.C. budget includes a provision that requires the state Department of Transportation to report the projected cost of the act to the N.C. General Assembly. North Carolina has been unable to determine the cost of implementing the act because the federal regulations have not been finalized.

A bill that could ensure total compliance with the act was introduced in the N.C. House in February.

"We think we're further along than a lot of the states," said Marge Howell, an N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles communications officer.

North Carolina has put forward several initiatives to strengthen the security of driver's licenses.

State Rep. Cary Allred, R-Alamance, said that before North Carolina tightened its regulations that applicants would come from as far as New Jersey and Pennsylvania to get a N.C. driver's license.

"North Carolina was known as the easiest place in the nation to get a driver's license," he said, adding that the security situation has definitely improved.

Allred acknowledged that he has reservations concerning the possible invasion of privacy involved with the act's establishment of a central database of information about U.S. citizens.

"I've had quite a few constituents who've questioned the necessity of it."

There are three main objections to the act: high cost estimates, invasion of privacy concerns and federalist issues related to the federal regulation of what has always been a state issue, Sundeen said.

In Maine, one of the six states to pass a law prohibiting any state spending on efforts to comply with the act, all of those objections have been raised.

Officials estimated that implementing the act would cost Maine $185 million in the first five years, said Don Cookson, communications director for Maine's Department of the Secretary of State.

Cookson said the act also would shift the responsibility of immigration enforcement to the states by requiring more extensive local measures to verify legal residency.

"That's a tremendous undertaking, something that really states should not have to concern themselves with," he said.



Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.



N.C. driver's license regulations

February 2004 DMV excludes the use of any foreign identification documents except valid passports paired with unexpired visas.

March 2004DMV begins checking applications against the Social Security Administration's database.

February 2005 DMV begins electronically storing driver's license photographs.

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