Maine governor signs license bill...

Maine governor signs license bill


By Glenn Adams
The Associated Press, April 18, 2008



Augusta (AP) -- Acknowledging that it was a tough issue for lawmakers, Gov. John Baldacci signed into law a bill to tighten standards for getting a Maine driver' license, a measure that was dreaded as an affront to civil liberties and defended only as a stopgap.

Baldacci wasted little time before signing the bill after the Senate approved it by a 19-15 vote Thursday night.

With the bill's enactment, Maine joins 44 other states, including the rest of New England, in making legal presence a requirement for getting a driver's license, the governor said. It also helps ensure Mainers won't be put through extra security screening when they board airplanes or go to federal buildings.

'This was a difficult issue for many people in the Legislature,' Baldacci said in a statement. 'But we have done the right thing. The laws regarding Maine's driver's licenses have been too lax. The Legislature has put the best interest of our people first.'

The bill was submitted by Baldacci under pressure from the federal government, which noted that Maine is among the few states that currently have no rules limiting licenses to legal U.S. residents.

After winning barely enough votes in the House on Wednesday to pass, the bill gained momentum when lawmakers stripped away a provision that called for 50 percent increases in driver's license fees to pay for the licensing changes.

'They made a bad bill better, but not good enough,' said Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, which lobbied hard against passage. The MCLU and other critics believe it would single out immigrants while eroding everyone's privacy rights.

'Slowly but surely, our freedoms are being picked off one by one,' Sen. Elizabeth Schneider, D-Orono, warned during an hourlong Senate debate.

Baldacci submitted the bill after the federal Department of Homeland Security rejected Maine's request for an extension of the March 31 deadline to show action toward compliance with the Real ID Act of 2005.

While Baldacci and others try to disassociate the bill from Real ID, critics see a connection and say the DHS is effectively deputizing Maine and other states to act as immigration enforcement agents. Last year, Maine passed a law barring compliance with Real ID.

'We said no then and we should say no now,' Sen. Dennis Damon, co-chairman of the Transportation Committee, said during Thursday's debate. The Trenton Democrat also warned of long-term costs of compliance, which he said could add up to $71 million in Maine alone.

Other senators were alarmed by the hasty deliberations they say were forced by federal edict. The bill was introduced shortly after Baldacci agreed to its general terms April 2. This year's legislative session is due to end this week.

'We are being told we have to rush this through right now. We do not,' said Sen. Philip Bartlett II, D-Gorham, who called for a more complete analysis over the next few months so the next Legislature can act in early December.

Bartlett and others expressed doubt the bill's provisions will accomplish their objective to make the country safer.

But Sen. Bill Diamond urged senators to act, saying that failure to do so could mean that Mainers' licenses and state IDs will no longer be acceptable credentials and residents using them will be subjected to extra security screening at airports and federal buildings after Dec. 15.

'This bill, ladies and gentlemen, buys us time,' said Diamond, D-Windham, and also a member of the Transportation panel that hastily reworked Baldacci's bill.

The measure requires Maine licenses to expire when a holder's legal duration of stay in the U.S. ends, that photos of applicants be taken at the start of the licensing process, that the state find ways to avoid duplication of licenses and that motor vehicles officials check with the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, program to determine whether an applicant is residing in the U.S. legally.

A proposal to increase the fee for a six-year noncommercial driver's license from $30 to $45, and other fees as well, was cut out of the bill.

Sen. Christine Savage of Union, the senior Republican on Transportation who also supported the bill, said it does no more than ensure the integrity of Maine licenses. She also noted that other state agencies already utilize the SAVE program.



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