Texas driver surcharge law up for debate; El Paso drivers account for nearly half of fees

April 15--AUSTIN -- State Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, on Monday appeared to open the door -- slightly -- to the abolition of a controversial state program that socks motorists with administrative penalties in addition to the criminal sanctions they suffer for certain traffic offenses.

Pickett, chairman of the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committees, has long agreed that the program has big problems.

For example, it has collected less than half of the $3.2 billion that is owed to it and judges. Also, prosecutors and defense attorneys agree that more than a million Texas motorists have lost licenses because of a program that few know about, much less understand.

On Monday, Pickett held a hearing to review ways to fix the program as part of an interim assignment by House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio.

The program imposes annual penalties for three years for traffic convictions including driving without insurance, without a license or while drunk. The annual fees range from $100 for driving without a license to $2,000 for driving with a blood alcohol level above 0.16 percent.

Data produced last year by the Texas Department of Public Safety indicated that El Pasoans are disproportionately penalized under the program.

In a listing of the 10 Texas ZIP codes with the most surcharges, four were in El Paso. Of the 538,000 surcharges on the list, almost half -- 236,000 -- were for El Paso drivers.

In the midst of calls Monday to abolish the program, Pickett said that might be politically impossible because $150 million of its annual revenue pays for trauma care and because House members are reluctant to cast a vote that would make them appear soft on crime.

"We're not going to do away with the program as it sits," Pickett said. "I just don't see that happening."

Pickett wanted to look at ways to make the program work better, but <person>Edna Staudt, a justice of the peace in Williamson County, said that was futile. She said the program is an unconstitutional way of punishing motorists a second time for crimes they had already paid for in court.

And, Staudt said, hordes of Texans have lost licenses for not paying fees from the program.

"All those 1.3 million people, those are people who are struggling to go to work," she said.

Bill Lewis, Texas public-policy director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said his group is not wedded to the Driver Responsibility Program, but he likes the idea that it generates funds for trauma care because drunkenness is a reason for so many trips to the emergency room.

"Those who caused the harm ought to pay for it," Lewis said.

However, he said, the money for trauma care generated by the program might be replaced by a 30-cent increase in the tax on a six-pack of beer.

Lewis said the tax hasn't been increased since the early 1990s.

Shawn Dick, a Williamson County defense attorney, said that half of the 5,500 misdemeanor cases filed in one county court there last year stemmed from license suspensions under the Driver Responsibility Program.

David Hodge, a former judge who now educates other judges, said he hears constant horror stories about the Driver Responsibility Program's effect on the courts and the jails.

He said many judges now are much more willing to allow defendants facing their first or second drunken-driving arrests to plead to lesser charges.

Many judges believe the program is unconstitutional and they're unwilling to sock defendants with additional fees -- ranging from $4,500 to $6,000 -- they know are unaffordable, Hodges said.

As proof, Hodges cited statistics saying there were 80,000 DWI convictions in 2003, the first year of the Driver Responsibility Program. The number dropped to 57,000 in 2013.

"We have at least as many DWI arrests now as we had in 2003," Hodges said.

Scott Henson of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition reiterated that point.

"DWI convictions are decreasing because of this program," he said.

Pickett appeared to seize on that as a way to justify ending the program.

"If we can get some facts to back that up, we can take the next step," he said.

Marty Schladen may be reached at 512-479-6606.

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