REVENUE ESTIMATING CONFERENCE Tax: Highway Safety Fees Issue: Driver License Reinstatement Pilot Program Bill Number(s): HB 787 Entire Bill Partial Bill: Sponsor(s): Month/Year Impact Begins: 7/1/2016 Date of Analysis: 2/12/2016 Section 1: Narrative a. Current Law:

Individuals who violate Florida laws may be sanctioned through the suspension or revocation of their driving privilege. Driver license revocations and suspensions, respectively, terminate or temporarily withdraw one’s driving privilege. To reinstate a suspended or revoked license, individuals must fulfill legal and financial obligations. Drivers will need to pay reinstatement fees in addition to any outstanding obligations to legally drive. b. Proposed Change:

The bill establishes a Driver License Reinstatement Days pilot program in Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Orange, and Pinellas Counties for the purpose of reinstating suspended driver licenses. Participants within each county shall include the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, the state attorney, the public defender's office, the circuit and county courts, the clerk of court, and interested community organizations.

The clerk of court, in consultation with the other participants, shall select 1 or more days for an event at which persons with suspended driver licenses may have their licenses reinstated pursuant to this section. A person must pay the full reinstatement fee; however, the clerk may compromise or waive other fees and costs to facilitate the reinstatement.

A person is eligible for reinstatement under the pilot program if the person's driver license was suspended because the person:

Was driving without a valid driver license;

Was driving with a suspended license;

Failed to make payments on penalties in collection;

Failed to appear in court for a traffic violation; or

Failed to comply with provisions of chapter 314 or chapter 318, Florida Statutes, relating to disposition of a traffic citation.

The clerk of court and the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles shall verify any information necessary for reinstatement of a driver license under the pilot program. By October 1, 2017, the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles shall report the results of the pilot program to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The report shall include any recommendation by the department to continue, discontinue, or expand the pilot program and any necessary legislative action to facilitate a continuation or expansion of the pilot program. This section is repealed October 1, 2017. Section 2: Description of Data and Sources Florida Clerks of Courts Operation Corporation 2015 “Statewide Collection Initiative Update”. http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.flclerks.com/resource/resmgr/Statewide_Collection_Initiat.pdf DHSMV Driver License Active Sanctions data. Section 3: Methodology (Include Assumptions and Attach Details) Last year the majority of clerks (65 of 67) participated in a statewide campaign, Operation Green Light aimed at increasing collections and assisting in the reinstatement of suspended driver licenses (see attached for Operation Green Light summary). The six counties’, proposed to be part of this pilot program, results from Operation Green Light were:

Clerk of Court Operation Green Light Results (as of 5/1/2015)

County Length (days) Fee Wavied Total Collections*Cases Reinstatements Reinstatement Eligibility

Broward 5 35% Collections Surcharge 486,359.09$ 7,589 152 1,207

Duval 1 40% Collections Surcharge 513,109.43$ 2,298 355 663

Hillsborough 1 40% Collections Surcharge 73,988.60$ 292 20 137

Miami-Dade 5 40% Collections Surcharge 919,332.57$ 4,955 280 1,506

Orange 2 40% Collections Surcharge 517,126.27$ 1,574 200 700

Pinellas 5 40% Collections Surcharge 226,723.52$ 934 24 162

Total 2,736,639.48$ 17,642 1,031 4,375

* Collections do not include reinstatement fees.

X

528

REVENUE ESTIMATING CONFERENCE Tax: Highway Safety Fees Issue: Driver License Reinstatement Pilot Program Bill Number(s): HB 787 While there are not data available about these counties regarding the disposition of the fees collected (between local and state accounts), applying the aggregate fund splits to the individual collections of each county resulted in approximately:

County Local/Clerks State

Broward $ 300,039.13 $ 186,319.96

Duval $ 316,541.65 $ 196,567.78

Hillsborough $ 45,644.21 $ 28,344.39

Miami-Dade $ 567,144.22 $ 352,188.35

Orange $ 319,019.67 $ 198,106.60

Pinellas $ 139,867.70 $ 86,855.82

Total $ 1,688,256.59 $ 1,048,382.89 A persons driver license can be suspended for multiple reasons and becoming whole with your court fines or fees does not specifically translate into the ability to reinstate a driver licenses (evident by the disparity between cases paid, reinstatements eligible and reinstatements). If a person is able to pay off an unpaid traffic ticket but is not current with child support payments, their driver license cannot be reinstated. For the above results, the clerks were able to waive the additional collections surcharge to reduce the amount owed by approximately 40% (35% in the case of Broward). It is unclear if the clerk will be able to waive those additional fees again under this pilot program. As there is lack of data regarding what the underlying penalties are for the population with a suspended license, it is difficult to predict what and how those penalties will be administered under this pilot program. According to the DHMSV there are approximately 541,681 licenses actively suspended for failure to appear or comply with a traffic summons, failure to pay a traffic fine, or failure to pay or appear on a criminal charge.

Suspended Driver Category Broward Duval Hillsborough Miami-Dade Orange Pinellas Total

Fail to Appear-Traffic Summons 23,567 17,214 12,454 56,296 9,410 6,177 125,118

Fail to Comply-Traffic Summons 2,073 1,964 1,488 2,198 1,800 872 10,395

Failed to pay Traffic Fine-Penalty 63,221 47,965 44,622 118,794 51,034 28,158 353,794

Criminal-Fail to Pay 17,574 3,352 11,060 4,291 2,646 2,515 41,438

Criminal- Failed to Appear 2,703 998 2,729 2,509 1,003 994 10,936

Total 109,138 71,493 72,353 184,088 65,893 38,716 541,681 This bill gives these counties discretion over the number of days (at least one day) on which to hold these events and fees and costs that may be compromised or waived. It is unknown how many days they will hold these events and which fees they will compromise or waive. Depending on the fees that are compromised or waived, the distribution of the funds collected could vary greatly. The distribution of these fund also depends on the makeup of the fees being collected (civil traffic vs criminal traffic, moving vs non-moving violations, etc.) It is assumed that regardless of the number of days or which fees are waived, this pilot program will have a positive impact on collections of court fees and reinstatements fees. The magnitude of the positive impact is unclear for the above mentioned reasons. This bill is assessed to have a positive indeterminate impact on the locals/clerks and state accounts. Section 4: Proposed Fiscal Impact

GR High Middle Low

Cash Recurring Cash Recurring Cash Recurring

2016-17 Indeterminate

2017-18 Indeterminate

2018-19

2019-20

2020-21

529

REVENUE ESTIMATING CONFERENCE Tax: Highway Safety Fees Issue: Driver License Reinstatement Pilot Program Bill Number(s): HB 787

Trust High Middle Low

Cash Recurring Cash Recurring Cash Recurring

2016-17 Indeterminate

2017-18 Indeterminate

2018-19

2019-20

2020-21

Local High Middle Low

Cash Recurring Cash Recurring Cash Recurring

2016-17 Indeterminate

2017-18 Indeterminate

2018-19

2019-20

2020-21

List of affected Trust Funds: General Revenue Highway Safety Operating Trust Fund Fine and Forfeiture Funds (Clerks-Local) State Court Revenue Trust Fund Department of Financial Services Administrative Trust Fund Court Education Trust Fund Public Defenders Revenue Trust Fund State Attorneys Revenue Trust Fund Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Trust Fund Additional Court Costs Trust Fund Emergency Medical Services Trust Fund Domestic Violence Trust Fund Displaced Homemaker Trust Fund Child Welfare Trust Fund Audit and Warrant Clearing Trust Fund Crimes Comp Trust Fund Crime Stoppers Trust Fund Other Section 5: Consensus Estimate (Adopted: 02/12/2016): The Conference adopted the proposed estimate.

GR Trust Local/Other Total

Cash Recurring Cash Recurring Cash Recurring Cash Recurring

2016-17 ** 0.0 ** 0.0 ** 0.0 ** 0.0

2017-18 ** 0.0 ** 0.0 ** 0.0 ** 0.0

2018-19 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

2019-20 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

2020-21 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

530

531

532

533

534

535