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Texas may drop extra charge in DWI, no-insurance cases
Associated Press
March 7, 2011, 12:43PM
AUSTIN — Lawmakers are considering eliminating a program that requires those charged with offenses including driving while intoxicated and failure to have insurance to pay state surcharges.
Nearly 60 percent of those with the surcharges — about 1.2 million drivers — are unwilling or unable to pay and owe the state more than $1.1 billion.
The surcharges are part of the Texas Driver Responsibility Program. The Senate Criminal Justice Committee recently called for the program to be eliminated, calling the increasing number of drivers who are unlicensed and uninsured because of it “unacceptable.†Drivers who refuse to pay lose their licenses.
Texas Department of Public Safety DPS, under orders from the Legislature, began offering an amnesty program in January that allows delinquent drivers to settle up and get their licenses back by paying 10 percent of the amount they owed.
The Texas Driver Responsibility Program was approved by the Legislature in 2003 to raise money for highways and trauma care, but no money from the program has ever gone to highways because of a lack of payments, and trauma centers have received only a fraction of what was intended.
DWI offenses carry the biggest surcharges — $1,000 a year for three years on the first conviction and $2,000 a year if the blood alcohol content is twice the legal limit. No car insurance and an invalid license draw a $250-a-year surcharge for three years. Surcharges must be paid in addition to regular fines assessed for those violations.
“These surcharges are not changing behavior, not being collected and are creating a new class of criminals each day by adding to the 1.2 million unlicensed and uninsured drivers in the state,†the Senate committee said in a report to the Legislature.
Two other states that tried similar surcharge programs abandoned them because of the huge number of drivers who would not pay.
Texas may drop extra charge in DWI, no-insurance cases
Associated Press
March 7, 2011, 12:43PM
AUSTIN — Lawmakers are considering eliminating a program that requires those charged with offenses including driving while intoxicated and failure to have insurance to pay state surcharges.
Nearly 60 percent of those with the surcharges — about 1.2 million drivers — are unwilling or unable to pay and owe the state more than $1.1 billion.
The surcharges are part of the Texas Driver Responsibility Program. The Senate Criminal Justice Committee recently called for the program to be eliminated, calling the increasing number of drivers who are unlicensed and uninsured because of it “unacceptable.†Drivers who refuse to pay lose their licenses.
Texas Department of Public Safety DPS, under orders from the Legislature, began offering an amnesty program in January that allows delinquent drivers to settle up and get their licenses back by paying 10 percent of the amount they owed.
The Texas Driver Responsibility Program was approved by the Legislature in 2003 to raise money for highways and trauma care, but no money from the program has ever gone to highways because of a lack of payments, and trauma centers have received only a fraction of what was intended.
DWI offenses carry the biggest surcharges — $1,000 a year for three years on the first conviction and $2,000 a year if the blood alcohol content is twice the legal limit. No car insurance and an invalid license draw a $250-a-year surcharge for three years. Surcharges must be paid in addition to regular fines assessed for those violations.
“These surcharges are not changing behavior, not being collected and are creating a new class of criminals each day by adding to the 1.2 million unlicensed and uninsured drivers in the state,†the Senate committee said in a report to the Legislature.
Two other states that tried similar surcharge programs abandoned them because of the huge number of drivers who would not pay.
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