Real ID funding delayed

CARSON CITY -- Members of a joint legislative budget committee voted unanimously Tuesday against funding the implementation of the Real ID Act for the next two years, opting instead to wait and see if the measure mandated by Congress in 2005 is changed or repealed.

The latest budget for the program submitted by Gov. Jim Gibbons would use $26.4 million in state funds over the next two years to hire staff to begin to implement the act, which will require every driver in Nevada pass through a Department of Motor Vehicles office to show proof of identity to get a new driver's license.

The DMV had planned to begin implementing the program in May of 2008.

Based on the action of the joint Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means budget subcommittee, the state instead will ask in October for an extension from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to implement Real ID.

The only funding approved by the panel was $100,000 this year to hire a project manager who would submit the state's plan to implement Real ID by a Feb. 10 deadline.

The project manager position could be continued in the 2008-2009 fiscal year at a cost of $200,000 with approval from lawmakers.

Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas, made the motion to delay implementation.

"If they want it done, they can pay for it," she said. "I think we should ask for the extension for as long as possible and hope it goes away in the meantime, which I think it is going to."

The Real ID Act contains no provision for funding, although a decision was made to allow states to use some of their Homeland Security funds to pay for its implementation. The grant money would not come close to paying for Real ID.

Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, said the Legislature is "shooting in the dark" on Real ID because the final regulations implementing the program are not finalized and won't be until later this summer after lawmakers have gone home. It would be less costly to hold a one-day special session to implement Real ID if that becomes necessary rather than spend millions now to try to prepare for a process that remains undefined, he said.

Unless Congress changes the Real ID act, every Nevada resident who wants a driver's license will have to appear in person at a DMV office to obtain the license under the anti-terrorism law. It also will require that every resident show proof of who they are before getting the license.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a letter to Nevada Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, that he is committed to revising Real ID to make it more workable.

In the letter, Reid said: "While I believe we should increase the security of driver's licenses, many leaders in Congress, including myself, believe Real ID in its current form is not workable, mandates unrealistic deadlines and should be modified."

DMV Director Ginny Lewis said the agency's plan to start issuing the IDs in May of 2008 was to coincide with the expiration of Nevada licenses, which occurs on a four-year cycle. Replacing licenses on regularly scheduled expiration dates would lessen chaos connected to the process, she said.

But McClain said compliance with Real ID will be chaotic under any circumstances.

The extension would delay implementation to after Dec. 31, 2009.

As the law now reads, the Real ID program must be completed by the states by May of 2013 whether an extension is sought or not.

The recommendation of the subcommittee will require approval by a majority of both the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees, as well as by the full Legislature, before it would become final for the 2007-2009 budget.