JUSTICE ACTION NETWORK THANKS GOV. WALZ FOR SIGNING BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION TO END DRIVER’S LICENSE SUSPENSION FOR FAILURE TO PAY COURT FINES AND FEES
Legislation Will Let Minnesotans Keep Their Driver’s Licenses and Eliminate Current Practice of Charging Multiple Reinstatement Fees to Regain Licenses
(Saint Paul, MN) – Today, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed House File 10 into law, eliminating failure to pay fines and fees as a cause for driver’s license suspensions in non-criminal traffic infractions, and ending the practice of charging multiple reinstatement fees for regaining a suspended driver’s license. The bill, part of the Transportation Omnibus funding package, received bipartisan support in the House and Senate. The underlying legislation was sponsored by Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen (8-R) and Representative Jamie Becker Finn (42B-DFL) while the Omnibus bill was sponsored by Senator Scott J. Newman (18-R) and Representative Frank Hornstein (61A-DFL). In response to today’s bill signing, the Justice Action Network, the country’s largest bipartisan organization working on criminal justice reform at the state and federal levels, issued the following statement:
“For years, Minnesotans have lost a critical lifeline to jobs merely for being too poor to pay a minor traffic fine and fee,” said Carl Filler, State Policy Analyst for the Justice Action Network. “This bipartisan legislation, which passed in the House and Senate with overwhelming support from both parties, will put an end to this practice as well as the current practice of ‘double-stacking’ reinstatement fees. There will be as many as 144,000 fewer suspensions next year by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety due to this legislation - keeping vulnerable families out of further debt and allowing them to more easily pay the original fines and fees.”
“We thank Governor Walz for signing this critical piece of legislation and helping hardworking Minnesotans keep their jobs and support their families. We’d like to thank Representatives Becker-Finn and Frank Hornstein for championing this bill in the House, Senators Ingebrigtsen and Newman for shepherding it through the Senate,” continued Filler.
HF 10 will:
Forbid suspension of a person’s driver’s license based solely on a person’s failure to pay a traffic ticket, parking fine, or surcharge following a conviction for a vehicle operation or parking citation, and
Eliminate the current practice of imposing two reinstatement fees and ensures that only a single fee is imposed to reinstate a suspended or revoked driver’s license, regardless of the number of violations committed that each led to a suspension or revocation.