LITTLE ROCK – Beginning on May 7, Arkansas residents will need to produce a “Real ID” in order to board a domestic flight, enter a federal building or visit a military base.
If you don’t have a Real ID, you must present additional forms of identification along with your driver’s license.
On May 7 the federal government will no longer accept drivers’ licenses and ID cards issued by states that do not include the additional security measures required to get a Real ID. Arkansas has been issuing the enhanced licenses and ID card to participate in the national effort to stop identity theft and combat terrorism.
You can get a Real ID driver’s license at your local revenue office, where you have always gone to get a traditional driver’s license and renew you motor vehicle tags. The Real ID costs the same as the old licenses, $40. If it isn’t time to renew your license, it will cost $10, which is the cost of getting a duplicate.
You will have to bring more documentation than before. For example, you must provide a birth certificate or current passport to indicate you were born in the United States. As proof of identity bring a current driver’s license, a concealed carry permit, a student ID, a vehicle registration title, a military ID, a tax return dated within the past year, a marriage certificate, a pilot’s license or a prison release document.
You must show a Social Security card or a DD214 document showing your certificate of release or discharge from active duty.
To prove your residency you must bring two documents, such as utility bills, with your name and address. Bank statements, lease agreements, health or auto insurance bills, tax returns, personal property tax receipts, voter registration, medical or dental bills, pay slips, tuition invoice or school records.
You can still get a Real ID after May 7.
Infrastructure Funding
The Senate passed legislation to continue a loan program administered by the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, which will issue $500 million in bonds and make loans available for water, waste disposal, pollution control, abatement, flood control, irrigation and drainage projects. Irrigation projects may account for no more than $165 million of the total.
The measure is Senate Bill 421. The general obligation bonds must be approved in a statewide election in November of 2026, unless the governor calls a special election before then.
In related news the House of Representatives approved House Bill 1681 to create a $50 million grant program within the Natural Resource Commission for water and sewage treatment facilities. Even the bill’s sponsors admitted that deteriorating water and sewer infrastructure throughout Arkansas is so extensive, the grants funded by HB 1681 would only be a “band-aid.”
Under the bill, 80 percent of the grants will go to “shovel-ready projects” in cities with more than 1,200 people, or rural water and wastewater systems serving more than 1,200 customers.
The other 20 percent of funding will go to cities and rural water systems with fewer than 1,200 people, with no requirement that projects be shovel-ready.
