BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 881|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 881
Author: Hertzberg (D)
Amended: 8/24/16
Vote: 21
PRIOR VOTES NOT RELEVANT
SENATE TRANS. & HOUSING COMMITTEE: 10-0, 8/31/16
AYES: Beall, Allen, Bates, Gaines, Galgiani, Leyva, McGuire,
Mendoza, Roth, Wieckowski
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cannella
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 8/30/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Vehicles: violations: payment of fines and bail
SOURCE: American Civil Liberties Union of California
Western Center on Law and Poverty
DIGEST: This bill modifies the traffic amnesty program, which
assists individuals who have had their driver's license
suspended due to failure to pay traffic fines.
Assembly Amendments delete the Senate version of this bill and
instead require the court, when required to issue and file a
certificate with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)
regarding an individual who has satisfied the requirements of
the amnesty program, to do so within 90 days; require the court,
for applications submitted prior to January 1, 2017, that are
still outstanding as of that date, to issue and file
certificates no later than March 31, 2017; provide that for
applications submitted on or before March 31, 2017, all terms
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and procedures related to the participant's payment plans shall
remain in effect after that date; and require an individual to
file a request with the court by March 31, 2017, in order to be
eligible for amnesty.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Authorizes a court to notify the state DMV when an individual
fails to pay a traffic fine (FTP), fails to appear in court
(FTA), or fails to comply with a court order (FTC). Existing
law requires the court to notify the DMV if the individual
later pays the fine.
2)Requires the court, when an individual appears before a
traffic referee or superior court judge regarding a traffic
offense, to consider the individual's ability to pay if he or
she so requests.
3)Prohibits the DMV from issuing or renewing a license for an
individual when:
a) A license previously issued to the individual has been
suspended, until the end of the suspension period, unless
the cause for the suspension has been removed.
b) A license previously issued to the individual has been
revoked, until one year after the date of revocation,
unless a different period of revocation has been prescribed
or the cause for revocation has been removed.
c) The DMV has received a notice from the court of an FTP
or FTA.
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d) The individual's driving record shows two or more FTPs
and/or FTAs, until all FTPs and FTAs have been reported to
DMV as cleared or adjudicated.
1)Requires DMV to suspend the driver's license of an individual
when DMV receives a notice from the court of an FTP or FTA for
that individual, until the individual's driving record is
cleared.
This bill:
1)Requires a court, when notifying the DMV that an individual
with a suspended license has appeared in court, paid the fine,
or otherwise satisfied the requirements of the amnesty
program, to do so within 90 days.
2)Requires a court, for amnesty applications submitted prior to
January 1, 2017 that are still outstanding as of that date, to
notify the DMV no later than March 31, 2017, of individuals
who have satisfied the requirements of the program.
3)Provides, for applications submitted on or before March 31,
2017, that all terms and procedures related to the
participant's payment plans shall remain in effect after March
31, 2017.
4)Requires an individual to file a request with the court by
March 31, 2017, in order to be eligible for the amnesty
program.
Background
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The state Judicial Council annually adopts a uniform traffic
penalty schedule for all non-parking infractions outlined in the
Vehicle Code. Due to additional surcharges, penalties, and
assessments, a base fine of $100, for example, results in a
total fine of $541. For many individuals, a traffic violation
can become prohibitively expensive and can lead to a suspended
driver's license. To address this concern, the 2015-16 Budget
agreement authorized an 18-month traffic amnesty program for
delinquent debt. Under this program, the $300 civil assessment
imposed by collection programs for an FTA or FTP is waived.
Individuals then receive a 50% reduction in the total amount of
court-ordered debt owed for traffic infractions and certain
traffic misdemeanors as long as specified criteria are met. In
addition, participants in the amnesty program, as well as
individuals currently making payments for the same violations
included in the amnesty program, can have their driver's
licenses reinstated. Moreover, SB 405 (Hertzberg, Chapter 385,
Statutes of 2015) required courts to allow individuals to
schedule court proceedings even if bail or civil assessment has
been imposed.
Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) recommendations. The LAO
issued a report in January 2016 titled "Improving California's
Criminal Fine and Fee System." In it, the LAO identified a
number of problems, such as the fact that the complexity and
piecemeal nature of the system makes it difficult to control the
use of fine and fee revenues and to distribute revenue
accurately. The LAO made two major recommendations. First, the
Legislature should re-evaluate the structure of the system,
giving consideration to system goals, ability to pay,
consequences for failure to pay, and whether fines and fees
should be adjusted. Second, the Legislature should increase
legislative control of criminal fine and fee expenditures by
depositing most revenue in the General Fund; consolidating most
fines and fees; evaluating existing programs supported by the
revenues; and mitigating impacts on local government.
Comments
5)New bill. When this bill left the Senate, it focused on
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eliminating suspension of driver's licenses as a means of
collecting court-ordered debt associated with non-safety
traffic offenses. After passing out of the Assembly
Appropriations Committee, it was gutted and amended based on
negotiations between the author, sponsors, Administration, and
Judicial Council, to instead make several changes to the
existing traffic amnesty program. According to the Western
Center on Law and Poverty (WCLP), co-sponsor of this bill,
"While all parties remain committed to resolving the issue of
license suspensions for minor traffic tickets, the
Administration prefers a 'global' solution that will ensure
justice for those losing their licenses and a reliable revenue
system for the courts of California."
6)Traffic amnesty program will expire in seven months. The
author added a provision to this bill on August 15, 2016, to
extend the traffic amnesty program, which currently expires on
March 1, 2017, to December 31, 2017, in hopes of continuing
the program while the "global solution" referenced in Comment
1) above could be developed and implemented. This provision,
however, was removed on August 19, 2016, due to cost concerns
raised by the Judicial Council. Thus, the traffic amnesty
program will sunset on March 31, 2017, pursuant to existing
law. WCLP states that "we have agreed to work with the
Administration and the Judicial Council to fashion a solution
that will be comprehensive and long-lasting."
7)Addressing program issues. WCLP states that the traffic
amnesty program established in last year's budget "was silent
on several important subjects that have become problematic
during its implementation." This bill addresses those issues
as follows: provides direction to the courts on how quickly
applications for amnesty must be transmitted to DMV; clarifies
that any application submitted on or before March 31, 2017,
must be processed under the same terms of amnesty; and ensures
that the terms and procedures of installment agreements
entered into by March 31, 2017, will be honored after the
amnesty programs ends.
Related/Prior Legislation
SB 405 (Hertzberg, Chapter 385, Statutes of 2015) required
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courts to allow individuals to schedule court proceedings, even
if bail or civil assessment has been imposed, and clarified the
traffic amnesty program.
SB 85 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, Chapter 26,
Statutes of 2015) authorized an 18-month traffic amnesty
program, beginning October 1, 2015, for delinquent debt.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, unknown
one-time net revenue gain during extended amnesty period and
longer term loss of revenue from reduced collections.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/26/16)
American Civil Liberties Union of California (co-source)
Western Center on Law and Poverty (co-source)
A New Way of Life Reentry Project
East Bay Community Law Center
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay
Area
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
OPPOSITION (Verified 8/26/16)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: A coalition of supporters of this bill
state that "this highly successful amnesty program has restored
driver's licenses to more than 100,000 Californians and has
allowed the courts to resolve more than 132,000 delinquent debt
cases in just the first seven months of the program." To help
ensure that all eligible Californians can receive the benefits
of the program before it expires, this bill ensures that all
amnesty applications filed by March 31, 2017, will be processed
and that starting January 1, 2017, the courts must process these
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applications within 90 days.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 8/30/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth
Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto,
Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper,
Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim,
Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis,
Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting,
Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
Prepared by:Erin Riches / T. & H. / (916) 651-4121
8/31/16 16:10:33
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