Governor has no plans to comply with ID law

State officials said Tuesday they have no plans to comply with new federal identification standards, and that South Carolina's current ID meets most of the new requirements.

At Gov. Mark Sanford's cabinet meeting, Department of Motor Vehicles director Marcia Adams noted that South Carolina meets 16 of the 18 benchmarks that the new federal rules, known as Real ID, establish.

Adams also noted that residents in state's that agree to comply with the rules would be allowed to use their current IDs until at least 2014. The state has complained that the federal rules would cost $16 million to implement, $10 million a year to maintain and would cause longer waits and other inconveniences for residents.

However, South Carolina residents are facing the prospect of needing a passport or other federally-issued ID beginning in May to open a bank account or visit some federal facilities. State residents who use their state ID to board a plane will have to pass through a second wave of security screening.

Adams and Sanford criticized the plan's cost and implementation at Tuesday's meeting, and said the state was still considering whether to ask for an extension. South Carolina has until the end of the month to request an extension, but Adams said the federal government has told them that requesting an extension is also agreeing to implement the new rules.

Last year the General Assembly passed, and the governor signed, a law rejecting the new rules until the federal government pays for the program's cost.

Comments

[Bill S]

Go Gov Sanford! The last thing we need to be p*ssing our money away on are National ID cards!