COLUMBUS, Ohio — Many Ohio drivers see their licenses suspended each year for not paying tickets or not having insurance. However, not having a valid license could become a burden preventing people from working and paying off fines.
Lawmakers at the statehouse are looking at bipartisan legislation to help get rid of license suspensions in certain cases.
What You Need To Know
- Senate Bill 37 stops someone's driver's license from being suspended because of debt-based offenses
- This bill is bipartisan and aims to help low-income Ohioans who could be the most impacted
- According to Lauren Krisai, the Deputy Director of the Justice Action Network, Ohio sees roughly 3 million license suspensions per year with more than 60% of these being for debt-related reasons, such as an unpaid traffic ticket.
Republican State Senator Louis Blessing III and Democrat Senator Catherine Ingram are sponsoring a bill that limits the state’s ability to suspend a person’s driver’s license for debt-based offenses.
Blessing said driving is a life skill, and a suspension could cause a negative effect on Ohioans who forgot to pay a bill, or are suffering financially.
“The issue is that it puts particularly low income folks into a cycle of, ‘While I can’t really pay this, I needed to be able to drive to support my family,’” said Senator Louis Blessing III, (R) Colerain Township.
“You can imagine for a person who can’t afford a $25 ticket,” Ferrato said. “Then going through a process that’s now going to charge them $500. In my case, my license suspension was ultimately dropped.”
“We are opposed to portions of the bill that would prevent license suspensions for drug offenses. The legislature can’t keep tying the hands of judges and prosecutors and expect that public safety will improve. These are discretionary license suspensions that judges can use as a tool to help prevent drug traffickers from transporting drugs and to help motivate addicts to get into and comply with treatment,” said Louis Tobin, the Ohio Attorney’s Prosecuting Association.
Lauren Krisai from the Justice Action Network said there are more than 24 states that have eliminated the use of driver license suspensions for unpaid fines, or traffic tickets.
“I would say like in Ohio there are currently 3 million people every year who have their driver’s licenses suspended and about 60% of those are for debt-based reasons,” said Krisai.
Ferrato said she hopes this law can help others just like herself.
“It is not okay to be criminalizing folks for violations that truly are not hurting anyone, aside from the pockets of the city and the state,” Ferrato said.