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
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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.
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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
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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.