State lines
Connecting state and local government leaders
<b>More on the Web</b>. Maine has expanded its Web site to offer services from local governments at <a href= "http://www.Maine.gov">www.Maine.gov</a>, the site's fourth upgrade in four years.
. Maine has expanded its Web site to offer services from local governments at , the site's fourth upgrade in four years.Maine.gov offers more than 300 online services to citizens and businesses. It recently added local government content and services from more than 500 municipalities through a single Web page. Visitors can find local officials, contact information and descriptions of cities and towns.The portal also leads users to services such as forms for voter registration, change of address and absentee ballot applications, and tools that let citizens interact with elected officials.Other recent offerings are the Rapid Renewal driver's license and state ID renewal and replacement service, Public Criminal History record searches, the Business Answers online business start-up assistant, and a Sportsmen Suite of more than 50 hunting and fishing license services.Maine.gov is a service of Information Resource of Maine, a collaborative effort between the state and New England Interactive LLC, a subsidiary of e-government firm NIC Inc. of Olathe, Kan.. The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles is conducting a pilot program to thwart fraud involving driver's licenses and state-issued identification cards.In the first phase of the program, AssureTec Systems Inc. of Manchester, N.H., will deploy antifraud systems at four Registry of Motor Vehicles locations across the state as well as at the department's forensics lab in Boston.Applicants for state-issued identification must verify their proof-of-identity documents through AssureTec's document authentication system. The system will analyze each document's security features and verify them against a library of authentication attributes. The library includes documents such as passports, visas and driver's licenses.The system uses a platform of analytical software tools to compare security information extracted from each document against the issuing state's built-in security features. If the document fails the validation process, the system indicates the reason and prompts the operator to better scrutinize the applicant as a potential fraud perpetrator.. The Texas Legislative Council recently abandoned its punch clock for HourTrack 2000 software from Time America Inc. of Tempe, Ariz. The software is installed on the council's Windows 2003 server.HourTrack 2000 has proven much more accurate than the punch clock, said Bill Rogers, a programmer with the council. The software has other features, such as payroll and human resources tools, but the council uses it primarily as a time clock.'You could plug in your salary and figure out benefits and other things, but we don't do that. That's handled by the state,' Rogers said.Rogers also said he monitors the HourTrack system daily. The old paper-based time-keeping system was monitored less frequently. Eliminating the paper timesheets also has reduced errors.'If somebody forgets to punch out, we can put it into the system the next day,' Rogers said.
NEXT STORY: Apps help citizens get back to work