Hearings set on driver's licenses and concealed-carry permits

Rolling quickly into the Missouri state capitol last week came accusations -- veiled as questions for the Department of Revenue -- from some legislators about efforts by the department to scan and save identification documents of applicants for driver's licenses and concealed weapons permits.

"I want to make one thing perfectly clear -- Missouri will not participate in a backdoor registry of firearms with the Obama administration," wrote Republican state Sen. Wayne Wallingford, in a statement released Friday titled "Senator Wayne Wallingford opposes secret scanning of concealed carry applications."

"If this is what the Department of Revenue plans, they must immediately put a stop to these violations of the law and the public trust," Wallingford said. "If we do not receive answers from the [Gov. Jay Nixon] administration and the Department of Revenue as to why these offices have been scanning and saving this private information, I will ask the Senate president to issue subpoenas to demand this information."

Similar statements came from lawmakers throughout the week after a lawsuit was filed Monday in Stoddard County by a man who opposes the department's policy of keeping a digital record of personal information. The suit alleges the department is keeping the information so it can later be shared with out-of-state companies or the federal government.

House and Senate Republicans have scheduled committee meetings this week to hear public testimony from the Department of Revenue.

The House Government Oversight and Accountability committee, chaired by Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, will question the department at noon Monday.

State Rep. Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, Mo., serves on the committee and introduced legislation the day after the lawsuit was filed. If passed it would prohibit the revenue department from scanning and transferring personal documents to an out-of-state database.

Richardson on Friday said the new way driver's licenses are being issued by the state -- changed from a "counter issue" in which a person presented documents for review at a license bureau to receive their card, to "central issue," in which licenses are being provided through a private company -- combined with the lawsuit allegations, are reasons for the filing of his bill.

"It brought the issue to light," Richardson said of the lawsuit.

"I want to make sure state law is absolutely clear that the Department of Revenue is not to share personal information, particularly not source documents, like birth certificates and Social Security cards, with anyone else," Richardson said. "They aren't supposed to create a database that puts those potentially at risk."

The department's scanning of the documents and sending them to Jefferson City, then to a private company, "is concerning to me and to a number of other people," Richardson said. "But what we really want to know, beyond that, is what else is happening with those scanned documents when they get to Jefferson City."

During the House committee meeting, Richardson said legislators plan to question the department about whether the documents are being shared with the federal government to create a database that shows who has concealed-carry permits.

"We're going to let the Department of Revenue tell their side of the case, and let anybody else who is concerned about this tell their side of the story," Richardson said.

Department of Revenue deputy director John Mollenkamp told the House Budget Committee at a hearing last week that he believed no information gathered by the department for license or permit issues is being sent to the federal government and that documents are going to a private company because of the high cost of printers.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, led by Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, Mo., also is expected to meet with the Department of Revenue on Wednesday.

A hearing for the Stoddard County lawsuit is set for 9 a.m. Tuesday in circuit court.

eragan@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

Jefferson City, Mo.

Bloomfield, Mo.