1997-05-19 Regular Meeting of City Council

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. e Unpaid traffic tickets can cost driver .Iicenses Many Texans traveling from town to town leave behind un. paid traffic tickets without a second thought. But soon, those unresolved citations will follow scofflaws throughout the state and put the brakes on their driver license renewal. Historically, cities and counties have been on their own when it came to collect. ing traffic fines. Motorists passing through a town they seldom visit might never bother. to pay a local ticket. "If a person passes through Austin and commits a Class C misdemeanor traffic violation, they're probably not going to worry about defaulting on a payment or failure to appear, because they live outside the im. 'Tlediate jurisdiction," explained Project Administrator Jan Coffey. "'n many cases, they may nElVer be brought :0 justice." . Last year, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 1504, :reating what is called the failure to appear (FTA) pro. lram. As a result, motorists can be denied renewal of heir driver licenses if they haven't paid traffic ,tickets )r appeared in court to protest them. DPS has contracted with a vendor which will collect icket data electronically from cities, counties and ourts. The company will provide computer hardware nd software that political subdivisions will use to compile nd submit information on delinquent tickets. DPS then will ~ceive the data, screen it and include it in the driver license atabase. DPS began offering contracts to political subdivisions in eptember, and Coffey said the system may be fully opera. onal by November, Offenders will be notified by the vendor when their ticket information is reported and will receive letters from DPS about potential denial instead of driver license renewal notices, If offenders don't take care of their tickets within 60 days of license expiration or renewal application, renewal will be denied, Cof. fey said. In addition to ticket fines, offenders entered in the FTA system must pay $30 for each offense. Ten dollars go to the political subdivisions, which must pay the vendor $6 for each offense when fees are collected. ..., Cities and counties don't pay when fines go"'un- , ' collected or when offenders serve jail time instead of paying them. ' . '.,!.',' As a result of this new law, traffic citations will in- fif elude a warning that motorists can lose their driver license privilege if they don't make payments on time, Coffey said. Based on a'1993 survey, DPS estimated that of the more than 2.3 million outstanding traffic warrants, as few as 25 percent were ever settled. That means un- paid traffic tickets could translate to more than $43 million in lost revenue for the state and $70 million for political subdivisioris. "I believe the lost revenue that cities and counties incur will decrease considerably, and the State of Texas will collect on fees associated with outstanding cases that or- dinarily wouldn't have been collected," Coffey said. "We hope it will deter violators from signing traffic citations promising to appear in court and then not abiding by the traffic law re- quirements." " t: ;; f r i ';4~' t"",c; f f i ,,' '. "':,'. I !: i I i , I I l ,; :- ):. ~; ~;;