GANNON’S “LICENSE TO DRIVE”
REACHES ROYAL PALM BEACH
West Palm Beach – Anne M. Gannon, Constitutional Tax Collector, announces the “License To Drive” program’s newest stop in Royal Palm Beach. Beginning April 4, driver license road tests and non-citizen services will be available at the Midwestern county location. “The Royal Palm Beach Service Center is now officially a one-stop shop where customers can conduct all necessary transactions,” says Gannon.
Gannon, along with County Commissioner Jess Santamaria, the Department of Motor Vehicles and a bevy of local officials and central county business leaders, will officially launch the services at 11:00 a.m. on April 6. The launch event will include a short ceremony and tour. Gannon plans to unveil a new customer service aid for driver license customers. The event is open to the public.
Gannon will also introduce the “License to Drive” community awareness program to the Midwestern communities. Gannon’s new driver license services resulted from a law passed in 2010 mandating local tax collectors issue Real ID compliant driver licenses and identification cards. The Real ID Act, a federal anti-terrorism measure requires original certified documentation proving birth, social security and residence prior to being issued a driver’s license or identification card. “Virtually everyone who drives or needs an official ID is impacted,” says Gannon. “The biggest obstacle is that so many people don’t know about the federal Real ID law. That means lots of people show up without the required documents and we, unfortunately, must turn them away.”
Gannon created the “License to Drive” community awareness program to help people better prepare for what she characterizes as a time consuming and often complicated process. Her multicultural “License to Drive” Toolkit includes a document organizer which lists the federally required documents, offers suggestions for replacement of lost or missing documents, and doubles as storage envelope. The toolkit includes useful checklists for U.S. citizens, non-citizens, immigrants and Canadians. The kits are available at the Royal Palm Beach event or can be downloaded at www.taxcollectorpbc.com.
The Royal Palm Beach location is in the Midwestern Communities Service Center, 200 Civic Center Way.