by Dixie Stark, Darby
Where are our state and local services?
Throughout Ravalli County there are signs posted on the doors of local businesses: HIRING, HELP WANTED. However, people who would like to apply but lack a Montana ID or Driver’s License find that it takes about two months to get an on-line appointment with the Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) in either Ravalli or Missoula County.
There is no longer a published number for the Stevensville MVD. The state-level helpline said the local office could not staff the phone for incoming calls. When I ask why it takes so long to get an appointment, I am told that it is because of backlogs due to Covid-19; but when I wanted my Real ID in January of 2019 so I could travel without my passport, the appointments were about two months out then too, long before Covid-19 was an issue. And if this is really driven by the pandemic, the state received lots of money to mitigate the effects of the pandemic — where has it gone?
People who lack a current, government-issued photo ID cannot be hired legally, so if you are homeless, or were evicted with little notice, or have fled severe domestic violence without your papers, you cannot even seek work for months. What can be done about this?
In a pro-business state like Montana, it seems like the legislature or governor’s office might consider adding money to the MVD budget so the hard-working state employees could add staff where needed and guarantee no one waits more than two weeks for an appointment.
Will this end the worker shortages? No, but it would help able-bodied people who are desperate to be employed but cannot get an ID in a hurry. It would help people who are seeking to complete their high school equivalency diploma and who cannot take the test without a current, government-issued photo ID. In fact, it takes less time for such people to prepare for the exam than to get an ID!
Surely our government can afford to staff these state and local offices so that citizens can receive timely services, allowing them to enter employment, access training programs, or complete their high school equivalency diploma without painful delays. The individuals caught in this situation suffer, and so do their communities.