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Indigency program for 'driver responsibility' fees?

The Texas House yesterday approved Sunset legislation for the Department of Public Safety, and it looks like Sylvester Turner added a couple of good amendments regarding the Orwellian-named "Driver Responsibility" surcharge, which adds a large, multi-year administrative fee on top of criminal penalties for DWI and no-insurance cases. The first one required DPS to make rules establishing an "indigency" program for the surcharge, and the second one required notice and mandated a 75% reduction if they're deemed "indigent" by DPS rule. Much needed.I'm sure there's technically a budgetary cost to the amendment, but with a 70% non-payment rate on the fee - a situation that's resulted in a staggering 10+% of Texas drivers scooting around the roads with outstanding arrest warrants - the money the state forgoes wasn't really coming in anyway.continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on May 14, 2009 (boomark / email).