ID law will cost much, but buy little

Nevadans may soon be paying the price for the federal government's lack of common sense and respect for states.

The state is tallying the cost for implementing the Real ID Act, which will require every Nevadan with a drivers license to show up in person at DMV offices and prove who they are with identity documents, including a birth certificate and Social Security number.

Over the next five years, that price tag in Nevada could be $64 million to pay for the 196 new workers needed to process all that information.

It will also lead to long lines and waiting times at DMV offices, because people won't be able to use the Internet to renew their licenses.

And this because a bureaucrat slipped the language into homeland security legislation.

It's another unfunded mandate, just like the No Child Left Behind Act, and the states do not have the option to ignore it.

Like No Child Left Behind, the idea sounds good on paper ... it would be reassuring to know that everyone who holds a drivers license is who they say they are. But it seems doubtful that counterfeiters would be thwarted by this law and its requirements. That means all that money and inconvenience would buy very little improvement in homeland security. That's your federal government at work.

The law should not have been enacted before states weighed in on what it will take to implement and whether it would be effective.

The new Congress should set to work quickly to bring common sense back to government, and this is a prime place to start.