Bill moving to help hundreds of thousands get their driver's licenses back. But there's a catch

Making it easier for people whose unpaid traffic fines snowballed into long-term suspensions could have a big impact.

Posted 1:35 p.m. Aug 23, 2021 — Updated 4:09 p.m. Aug 23, 2021

Travis Fain

, WRAL statehouse reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — A bill moving quietly through the General Assembly would help people who lose their driver's licenses over unpaid traffic fines get them back, though a more ambitious effort to reinstate people if they pay $10 a month may drop from the bill over logistics.

Senate Bill 490 is meant to help people get to and from work legally and make it more likely they'll carry car insurance, supporters said. Restoring suspended driver's licenses like this has been a priority for years for groups that advocate for low-income families around the state, though this bill doesn't go as far as some hoped.

As written now, the measure could help 350,000 people restore revoked licenses, sponsoring Sen. Danny Britt, R-Robeson, said. But much of that depends on language added to the bill last week that would put people into payment plans as cheap as $10 a month.

As long as they pay, they could keep driving on a legal license.

This is meant to help people who start with a small traffic ticket, don't pay it, get pulled over again, get their license revoked and see fines and fees mount to where they can't afford to pay them. Britt, an attorney in Lumberton, said he sees clients who owe thousands of dollars but also can't work unless they keep driving.

"It's a great bill," Britt said in a text message. "Especially for low-income individuals in rural NC."

The problem is implementation. It would be a big job for Superior Court clerks across the state to track payment plans and to inform the Division of Motor Vehicles if someone missed payments. Adding the payment plan language apparently derailed plans to vote the bill through the North Carolina House last Thursday, which would have been shortly after a House committee approved the new language.

That vote is now planned for Tuesday, though the timing could change again, and the bill may morph.

“The proposed $10/month payment was just added through an amendment to SB 490 in House Judiciary 2 Committee on Thursday morning," Graham Wilson, spokesman for the state's Judicial Branch, said in an email Friday. "Details of its implementation are currently under review by judicial officials.”

House Speaker Tim Moore and other House leaders confirmed Thursday they slowed the bill down to make time for more discussion about how the courts could implement it.

"We're all good with the core concept," said Rep. Sarah Stevens, R-Surry, chairwoman of the House Judiciary 2 committee.

Even without that section, the bill would help people with revoked driver's licenses get legal. One section would go back and make a change that the legislature approved in 2015 retroactive, helping people with permanent suspensions get their licenses back. The bill also shortens the length of some driver's license suspensions.

It wasn't immediately clear how many people that would help, but Emily Mistr, an attorney at the North Carolina Justice Center who has worked on these issues for years, called the changes "enormous ... hugely helpful."

"There are some things in (the bill) that are not in dispute that are fantastic," Mistr said.

Parts the bill also have carve-outs so they don't apply to people convicted of driving while impaired.

The bill has bipartisan support, but it's unclear what Gov. Roy Cooper's administration thinks of it in its current form. The Division of Motor Vehicles declined Friday to discuss it.

"This is not a bill that the N.C. Department of Transportation sought," DMV spokesman John Brockwell said via email "We are following the bill as it makes its way through the legislature. For details about this bill, you should contact the bill’s sponsors."

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