BILL ANALYSIS Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair 1601 (Hill) Hearing Date: 08/02/2010 Amended: 07/15/2010 Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Public Safety 7-0 _________________________________________________________________ ____ BILL SUMMARY: AB 1601 would authorize the court to revoke a person's license for 10 years after a third or subsequent DUI and provides that, upon receipt of a duly certified abstract of record showing the court has ordered a 10-year revocation of a driver's license, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) shall revoke the driver's license for 10 years. This bill specifies conditions under which a license revoked by this procedure may be reinstated. This bill provides that when a person is sentenced to jail or prison for a DUI, the court shall postpone the term of the license suspension or revocation until his/her release from prison and shall notify DMV of the postponement. _________________________________________________________________ ____ Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund DMV revocation procedure $500-600 Significant workload increase Special* Court notification procedure Potentially significant workload General** *Motor Vehicle Account **Trial Courts Trust Fund _________________________________________________________________ ____ STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. This bill would authorize the court to revoke driver's license of a person who has three or more prior DUI convictions, and requires specific court considerations in the decision. There is no additional cost to granting the court the authority to impose a 10 year revocation. The costs of this bill are incurred by the implementation of enforcing a court-ordered revocation, as specified by this bill. DMV will incur $468,000 in upfront costs to update its computer system to be able to implement the 10-year revocation, to delay the suspension period for every second-or-subsequent offense drunk driver who spends any time in jail, as required by this bill. DMV has also expressed concern that the department will not be able to update its computer system by January 1, 2011, when this bill would go into effect, and will have to devise a work-around process, in consultation with the courts, to implement this bill absent a computerized process until it can be updated (likely by January 2012). Until that time, both the court and DMV will likely experience a significant workload increase to set up a procedure and implement it manually. The courts would likely have to submit hard-copy abstracts of conviction, and then manually calculate and input any delay period, based upon the length of sentence. Additionally, DMV will have to establish a procedure for allowing suspended drivers to show evidence that they were released early, which is common, and manually recalculate the date of eligibility for reinstatement.