Twin bills seek to reduce driver’s license suspensions

Colorado lawmakers say they’ll try to make it easier and less costly for people with suspended driver’s licenses to get them reinstated.

They plan to take on the issue — which affects hundreds of thousands of Coloradans annually — with two bills this session.

Together, the bills would restore driving rights to people whose mobility and therefore economic opportunity are currently restricted. The combined effort is bipartisan and follows a Denver Post story about the hardships license suspensions can bring about.

One bill was introduced Friday. It’s championed by state Sen. Rob Woodward, a Loveland Republican, and co-sponsored by state Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat.

The other is still being drafted, but Herod assured The Denver Post on Monday that it is expected this legislative session.

In each of the last three years in Colorado, the state has placed at least 309,000 suspensions on driver’s licenses. The majority of the people affected by these suspensions are not considered dangerous drivers by the state; in fact, most of them were punished for reasons that have nothing to do with driving — including unpaid child support and unpaid court debts.

If you are found driving with a suspended license, the state can not only levy additional fines, but you may also become ineligible to buy back the license for a certain period of time — years, sometimes. That’s the focus of Woodward’s bill.

“Mine simply removes some of the mandatory additional sentencing,” said Woodward, who believes it is unfair for the state to “beat up” people repeatedly.

Herod, along with Colorado Springs state Sen. Pete Lee, a Democrat, is working on a bill that would complement Woodward’s by ending the practice of driver’s license suspension for people who have unpaid court fines and fees. Roughly 80,000 suspensions are issued in Colorado annually for this reason.

“The bill that we are working on with Sen. Woodward does allow for the reinstatement of driver’s licenses in certain cases,” Herod said. “I believe we need to stop, completely, the practice of taking someone’s license away because they can’t afford to pay their fines and fees. (Woodward’s bill) gets us in that direction, but I do believe we need a larger bill.”

These two pieces of legislation are potentially life-changing for many thousands of people, but they may face pushback. One big expected criticism: Courts and local governments rely — heavily, in some cases — on fines and fees to generate revenue, and some worry that reforms would create budget shortfalls.

Herod said she and others are working on ways to write the bill so that these shortfalls aren’t too dramatic.

She expects to get support from Republicans and is in talks with Woodward.

His bill could easily have been written into the upcoming one, but he said he thinks it might be advantageous to keep them separate.

“We think it’s important that something happens sooner than later,” Woodward said. “If both bills pass, that may be best. But it’s important that something passes. … Mine at least would give some relief to people if hers can’t be perfected — or maybe it’ll happen vice versa.”