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Carlton: Leave my driver's license alone

 
Published Sept. 5, 2015

Truth is, we Floridians have this whole getting-a-driver's license thing pretty much down pat.

Unless we're renewing our licenses online, we schlep over to our local tax collector's office. Maybe we whiz through the line, maybe we wait awhile, and odds are good we won't like whatever picture they take of us. But at the end of the day, we walk out with that shiny new bad-boy driver's license tucked in our wallets, task finished, job done, all good.

Clearly, this has to change.

The Times' Steve Bousquet reported this week that the state highway safety department is looking into a new "central issuance" system involving the state working with a private vendor. This would mean millions of us who get our licenses issued or renewed each year could wait up to two weeks for them to come by mail.

Sure, you would get a nice, temporary piece of paper without a photo to hold you over. (Wonder what police, bankers and others who have to rely on current photo IDs think of that?) But wait! If you want your actual license in your actual hands sooner, you have the privilege of paying extra.

Okay, first question.

Why?

Has no one in state government heard the one about how when something isn't broken, there's really no need to fix it?

Here is a case for leaving work in the hands of those we elect locally when it makes sense. Hillsborough County was looking at turning over the supervision of people on probation for misdemeanors to a company accused in other locations of charging excessive fees and getting probationers jailed when they could not pay. In a wise move, the office of the elected county sheriff — an entity with an interest in helping people successfully complete their sentences and get off probation — took the job instead.

Yes, there are reasons to at least look at a change in how we get our drivers' licenses. Plenty of other states use a "central issuance" system. No reason not to consider potential benefits.

Benefits, you say?

Four years ago, the highway safety department found the over-the-counter job being done by the tax collectors was efficient, safe and responsive.

In other words, not broken.

Proponents say the centralized system could make licenses with increased security features. And we can't make that happen locally why, exactly?

And apologies to the postal service, but some public officials have expressed understandable concern about trusting this task to the mail. Just the other day when I ordered new bank checks, the company selling them offered to let me pay a fat additional fee to make sure they were mailed "securely." Only a fool, they implied, would trust the mail with something so vulnerable to theft.

I like the idea of our tax collectors knowing that their customer service might figure into whether we return them to the job in the next election. Isn't that how public service is supposed to work?

Some tax collectors, along with a couple of Cabinet members, sound decidedly dubious about this change, and state officials say it won't happen unless there is consensus. Good.

Getting our drivers' licenses over the counter is a chore that works fine, thanks — not broken and not in need of a Tallahassee fix.

Sue Carlton can be reached at carlton@tampabay.com.