FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky’s Transportation Cabinet would eventually assume control of all driver’s licensing operations under a bill that won initial approval from a House committee on Tuesday.
The bill would shift responsibility for issuing traditional driver’s licenses away from circuit court clerk’s offices. It sets a mid-2022 deadline for the transition to occur.
The transportation cabinet already oversees the issuance of Real ID licenses, which many people will eventually need to board domestic airline flights.
The measure cleared the House Transportation Committee and now goes to the full House.
The plan is for the transportation cabinet to set up regional offices statewide to handle issuing both Real ID licenses and traditional driver’s licenses, cabinet officials told lawmakers. The cabinet’s budget request envisions 18 to 24 regional offices, said Real ID project manager Sarah Jackson.
That means many Kentuckians will face traveling outside their counties to obtain licenses.
“We are moving to a regional model,” Jackson said. “And it does mean that there will not be an office in every county. And that is a mindset. It is a change. But we do believe, in the long run, it is going to serve the citizens of this state very well.”
The bill got a separate plug earlier Tuesday from Gov. Andy Beshear, who said that “long term, it’s a direction we’re going to have to go.”
“Long term, we can’t have people going two different places to get those forms of identification,” the governor said at a news conference.
But he said the state needs to ensure enough licensing offices are available.
Under the bill, mobile licensing units would be required to visit each county without a regional office at least twice a year.
Kentucky’s court system is the only one in the country that issues driver’s licenses, said Laurie Dudgeon, director of Administrative Office of the Courts.
“So really this brings us more in line with the way the rest of the country is issuing driver’s licenses,” she told the committee.
The state’s judicial branch supports the bill, she said.
The bill is advancing as Beshear’s administration ramps up its Real ID program.
Starting Oct. 1, the new driver’s licenses that comply with a federal travel law will be needed to board domestic flights or enter U.S. military bases. People without a Real ID after that date will have to show another form of identification, such as a passport.
In a race against that deadline, the state has so far opened Real ID licensing offices in Frankfort, Bowling Green, Paducah, Somerset and Madisonville.
Kentucky lagged behind many other states in complying with the federal travel law passed in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The law required states to upgrade the security of driver’s licenses.
Beshear inherited the challenge of developing the statewide network to issue the special licenses before the looming deadline. Last September, before Beshear was elected, Kentucky backed off plans to have circuit court clerk’s offices distribute the new licenses. Instead, the task was shifted to the transportation cabinet to develop the network of regional offices to distribute them.
State Transportation Secretary Jim Gray told the House panel on Tuesday that the cabinet is making progress, saying it’s “squeezing three years of work into 11 months.”
___
The legislation is House Bill 453.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.