Over $500 million a year in consumer spending is lost to driver’s license revocations in Florida, according to a new report from the Fines and Fees Justice Center. This is another major reason for Florida and nationwide lawmakers to end this flawed practice.
The report also shows that 75% of Florida license revocations are unrelated to driver safety offenses. This means that the suspension will be used solely to force payments, with no benefit to public safety.
These findings add to the many reasons why numerous states have reformed and ended the use of driver’s license suspensions as a tool to collect court debts.
The basic idea is that having someone’s license suspended until they pay off their debt will incentivize them to pay. The problems with this are many, one is that people will have difficulty getting to work without a car; Another reason is that this is done to people who are not guilty of any violation of driving safety. Where the data to analyze is available, the collection rate for the courts also remains low, meaning they have to spend heavily on notifications and enforcement to get a dollar of debt repayment.
An inefficient debt collection system, driver’s license suspension also makes the police the ultimate tax collectors. And if someone with a suspended driver’s license decides to tempt fate and drive, they can be charged with the additional felony offense of driving without a license. This leads to desperation crime and a cycle of crimes where no threat to public safety warranted suspension at all.
Florida has taken small steps to mitigate the negative impact of lockdowns and will hopefully embark on major reforms this session.
Read more from Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, on the subject in The Examiner: “America’s covert tax system makes commuting a crime.”
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