Texas Drivers Petition to Repeal Big Surcharges
The tales told by Texas drivers are eerily similar. A traffic ticket for a relatively minor infraction leads to fines of hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. They can’t afford to pay or, worse, don’t even know they’ve been fined. They lose their licenses, lose their insurance, lose their jobs. Some even land in jail.
“I missed one payment for $80 dollars … and had my license suspended without my knowledge. I was then pulled over and now face even more surcharges and possible jail time.”
“This surcharge is ruining my credit and making it hard to pay all ...
Comments (10)
Gritsforbreakfast
"If she were in the Legislature now, Delisi says, she would change the program to give judges more leeway in deciding who should pay the surcharges."
And where, one wonders, were these proposals when Delisi was a legislator and these problems were readily apparent?
If trauma centers are worth funding, fund them with taxes. The DRP leaves many more drivers unlicensed and uninsured, which means more accident victims in trauma centers without insurance - it's <a href="http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/03/unexplored-costs-from-dps-surcharge.html">generating costs</a> as great or likely greater than it's paying out.
dickson
Absolutely it should be repealed. It's one of the worst public policy disasters of all time. I understand what they were trying to do. They didn't do it. They made things a hundred times worse. They didn't mean to do that, but that's what happened. Wake up, and repeal it.
TFS
Great article! The DRP and the lawmakers who support it are a disgrace to Texas! For Delisi- the program affects first time offenders as well, not just habitual offenders!
dickson
I wouldn't call anyone a "disgrace" for having taken part in the implementation of this program. It's not like the idea originated in the Texas Legislature. And I understand how easy it can be for any Texas legislator to support any measure that purports to be "tough on" drunk drivers or traffic scofflaws. This program just didn't do what the Legislature thought it would do, or what it hoped the program would do, and it has created all kinds of unintended collateral consequences. It should be repealed.
The Public Safety Commission doesn't have the power to repeal it themselves, but I hope they recognize that the program is a failure, and will at least mitigate the collateral consequences by implementing a meaningful indigency and amnesty program.
Although I am counsel to the Texas State Troopers Association, the opinions I've expressed here are solely my personal views.
TFS
All the Legislature had to do was look at what happened to other states when they implemented similar programs. Instead of responsibly balancing the budget and finding a legitimate way to fund trauma care, the Texas Leg. chose to cut corners and hire a private company to pull a scam on an arbitrarily selected group of Texas drivers.
Gritsforbreakfast
Dickson writes: "It's not like the idea originated in the Texas Legislature"
The hell it's not! It's not like the law came down from a mountain on stone tablets. Who cares if New Jersey and a couple of other states did it first? Didn't you ever hear your momma say, "If all your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump too?"
However, to their credit, in 2007 the Lege recognized the problem and gave the Public Safety Commission authority to FIX the problem, with the intent that they do so by creating not just an indigency but also "amnesty" and "incentive" programs by rule. (Many kudos, by the way, to Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden on that bill.)
As authorized in that 2007 legislation, the PSC could pass much stronger rules than staff has given them. In addition to indigence, at a minimum they need to include amnesty for past offenders who pay off some lesser fee to get rid of the surcharge. The irony is, DPS staff won't do it because they fear it might reduce revenue, but those 1.2 million people aren't paying anyway, and haven't been for 6+ years! Amnesty where they could pay a lesser amount to get their license back would probably be a short term revenue boon, not reduce revenue. That's a lot of folks.
AdvanceMan
Another major flaw of the Driver Responsibility Act is it's apparent inconsistant enforcement. I was convicted of a 2nd offense DWI in 2006 in a Texas Panhandle County ...the County Court at Law judge presiding over my jury trial apparantely threw out the state mandated sentencing guidelines at the conclusion of the punishment phase granting me 2 years supervised community probation and a relatively low fine. I have yet to be charged any surcharge whatsoever when I renewed my Texas drivers license and have not been charged an annual surcharge to maintain my license.
As a matter of fact, my liability insurance premiums have actually decreased since my DWI conviction and successful completion of my two-year probation in 2008.
Rob Martin
This law is exactly why I have not been able to make a decent buck since I graduated automotive trade school. You cant be a mechanic without a license! I got my first ticket for no insurance while attending UTI. The offenses and fines have snow balled and now I am unemployable for the very thing I went to school for! That has led to unpaid student loans and barely able to pay my bills! Now I have kids, and they are paying the price. For a traffic violation! Some good comments here... but the question is... What's it going to take Texas? I could be making 45+, but I only make 20! Stop ruining lives - your making your people poor, and that makes for some serious other issues. Hopefully I can qualify for the next program. :(
Daniel Montes
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas has accepted the case and will consider my motion to declare Ch 708 of TX Trans Code "Surcharge Program" unconstitutional. Writ No. WR-76,215-01. I ask all interested Tx lic attys, law professors, civil rights groups, etc to file their friend of the court briefs in support of relators motion to declare ch 708 of tx trans code unconstitutional. We got the Tx high court's attention now. Help me shut this ch 708 down, make the state refund every dollar with interest and reinstate all DLs suspended under ch 708. We don't need congress to repeal and wait for any federal court to intervene. This motion before a Texas high court to review a Texas statute. Its perfect.
Any questions?
Daniel Montes
469-563-8998 cell
Jim G.
It figures it would be a Democrat who thought up a way to take ever more money from the people. And typically, it hits poor people more often and the hardest. You never hear of a politician, ANY politician, suggest ways to cut spending.
No, they always threaten to cut civil services. Never perks or or plain pork. No, they threaten to cut welfare and food stamps just to get people in an uproar to back off demanding cuts. Just like proposed tax cuts- the outcry is "how are we going to pay for them?" But come proposed tax, fee, other schemes for taking yet more of OUR money, and nobody says, "How are THEY going to pay for it?" Then they whine when folks cannot or will not agree to be fleeced like sheep.