Family gives child "10" as middle name, insists that state list it that way on ID
Anchorage Sen. Mia Costello is a key member of the Dunleavy wing of the Alaska Legislature.
One of the Wasilla 22 who refused to go to Juneau last summer and vote on the vetoes, Costello tells Alaskans she is a fiscal conservative who is serious about right-sizing government.
She gave Alaskans reason to doubt her fiscal acumen in January when she exaggerated the size of the available reserves of the Anchorage school district by about $110 million.
She’s created more reason for doubt with her sponsorship of Senate Bill 162, a measure that has had what should be its one and only hearing before it dies in obscurity.
A legislator, especially one who grandstands against Big Government, must understand that sometimes he or she has to say “no” to a constituent who asks for government assistance.
Here is a case in which Costello should have said no.
Costello was ill and unable to speak to the Senate State Affairs Committee about her bill Tuesday, so she had her staff member, fellow fiscal conservative Tom Wright, defend it on her behalf.
Wright is a longtime government employee and a steadfast opponent of big government.
So there he was, explaining how one family complained to Costello that although they had given their child the number “10” as a middle name, the state was unable to print it that way on a state ID card or driver’s license.
The family said that the Roman Numeral “X” was unacceptable, as was showing the name as “ten.”
Because of that single complaint, Costello introduced SB 162, a bill that would require the state to recognize “123456789” as a name or “10” or any other number.
The state doesn’t know how much it would cost to reprogram state computer systems, but the Division of Motor Vehicles guessed it would be in the hundreds of thousands. Internal processes would break because there are multiple state systems that don’t recognize numbers as names, the division predicted.
But it appears that money is no obstacle. A constituent asked and Costello responded. She even had legislative lawyers research the idea.
“The parents of the child in question have been pretty adamant that they named their child—the middle name was 10—for a specific reason. I don’t know what that reason is,” said Wright.
“I guess, you know, the big thing is people sometimes name kids strange names,” he said, adding that “In my era I’m surprised there aren’t more people whose name included ‘7,’ you know for Mickey Mantle. I think it’s something that doesn’t occur very often, but if that’s what is stated on the birth certificate, somehow we need to honor that.”
No we don’t. Not when it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and this is the only request the state has received.
Wright said the Division of Motor Vehicles told the family to either spell it out or use Roman numerals, but “they’ve asked the state to honor the birth certificate and the state says we can’t do that due to federal regulations, you know REAL ID whatnot,” said Wright.
“We’re just trying to accede to the parents wishes on this one,” said Wright.
Any legislator really concerned about state spending would have told the parents that the state can’t afford this change and that “10” will have to get by, Super Bowl style, with “X” or “ten.” As some readers have suggested, a capital “I” and a capital “O” would work nicely.
Costello should withdraw the bill.
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