Driver ID offices lose hours, get them back

DPS reverses cutbacks under pressure from lawmakers, voter fears.

In a day of reversals, the Texas Department of Public Safety announced Tuesday it was slashing hours at its driver’s license centers, only to back off that decision under pressure from state lawmakers and possible complications in the long-running court battle over the state’s voter ID law.

The DPS blamed the cuts — implemented last week with little fanfare — on the budget approved by lawmakers last month. That budget maintained the state’s controversial $800 million bor- der security program, but cut other spending at the agency leading to the reduction in operating hours at the driver’s license centers, DPS officials said.

The DPS will try to scrounge the money necessary to restore the cut hours, according to an official statement released Tuesday. It encouraged Texans to use its online services, adding, “The decision to resume extended hours came after discussion with state leaders and state legislators.”

The reversal comes against the backdrop of the ongoing court dispute over the Texas voter ID law passed in 2011 and implemented in 2013. The state has loosened its requirements after a federal court found that the law, which requires voters to show a photo

ID (most commonly a driver’s license) before casting their ballots, disproportionately burdens minorities and low-income residents.

Lawyers continue to haggle over the threshold that voters must meet to cast a ballot.

Critics of Texas’ voter ID law say cutting the hours of the driver’s license centers would have exacerbated problems that led the federal 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rule against Texas.

“A federal court recently concluded that Texas lawmakers purposely acted to make it harder for minorities to vote when it passed the photo ID law,” said Myrna Pérez, a lawyer working on the case and a deputy director at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. “And then the state turns around and cuts the hours of the locations where citizens could go to get the identification the law required? It’s offensive and shocking. I’m glad to hear the reports that Texas is going to reverse that decision.”

The DPS does appear to be sticking with a decision to close two driver’s license offices in Dallas. The Tuesday statement announcing the restoration of the extended hours makes no mention of the two Dallas locations. DPS spokesman Tom Vinger couldn’t provide details about the Dallas locations Tuesday evening.

The agency had quietly disclosed the closures in an email to lawmakers and their staffs two weeks ago — after the Legislature ended its session, the Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday. The agency had been planning to lay off 108 people to address a $14 million shortfall in the current budget and a $7 million reduction beginning with the new budget in September.

In the email to lawmakers, the agency also said its policy of serving all customers in the offices at closing time had led to significant overtime costs, although Lt. Craig Cummings, a DPS spokesman, said that policy wouldn’t change.

Cummings urged drivers to renew their licenses online or call the office to make an appointment for renewal.

The department has a $2.4 billion budget for the upcoming two-year cycle, with about $750 million intended for border security. The driver’s license division, which the Legislative Budget Board says has 230 locations around the state and 2,100 employees, is earmarked for $133 million.

Vinger said the agency isn’t allowed to use border security money for other purposes, like the driver’s license division. Lawmakers also told the department its money in the upcoming budget was reduced by 4 percent. An increasingly large share of the funding was set aside for a border security program, which critics say does little but generate speeding tickets, resulting in cuts to other key department functions.

“It’s pretty alarming. We leave after sine die (adjournment), and leave (the DPS) a budget of $800 million for border security, which involves essentially two border counties, and we leave $11 billion in the rainy day fund, and we have to tell people they’re going to have to stand in longer lines to get a driver license,” said Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston.

In Houston, four large license offices, known as DPS Mega Centers — were to open at 8 a.m., 30 minutes later, and close at 5 p.m., an hour earlier than in the past. Offices were to remain open past 5 p.m. on Tuesdays.

Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said before the DPS reversed course that he would recommend the department resolve overtime costs by staggering the start times for people working in the offices.