I have written about this issue previously, but was pleased to see that momentum appears to be building in Texas to address the problems associated with the surcharge program. For those of you that don't know, the Texas legislature established a series of new surcharges that took effect in 2004. The misnamed law is referred to as the Driver Responsibility Program.
Essentially, a person convicted of driving while intoxicated will be required to pay a $1,000 annual surcharge for the first thrity six months following a conviction, just to maintain their driver's license. If a person is convicted of a second or subsequent DWI, or their breath or blood test is .16 or higher the surcharge amounts are greater.
Recently, a former District Judge testified before the Texas Public Safety Commission that the effect of the surcharge program has been to actually increase DWI dismissals because so many more DWI cases are being tried to juries since the passage of the surcharge law. There are approximately 1.2 million drivers in Texas presently who are subject to the surcharge law who are unable or unwilling to pay the surcharge.
The Public Safety commission convened a hearing in an effort to assess public opinion concerning a partial amnesety proposal to reduce the surcharge amounts for the indigent. In 2007, the Texas Legislature authorized the Department to create a program to address the indigent inability to pay. This recent hearing appears to be the first step that the Department has taken toward the creation of such a program.
It is important to remember that under the current state of the law, the Public Safety Commission does not have the authority to eliminate the surcharge. It may only carry out its legislatively authorized mandate to create a program addressing the reality that many of the drivers subject to the law, cannot pay.
Should the Texas Department of Public Safety fail to address the issue in a meaningful and significant way, there are those in the Legislature who may introduce legislation to change ro eliminate the surcharge.
