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DPS must change rules to give life to Driver Responsibility indigency program

One of the under-recognized achievements of the 81st Texas Legislature was the addition of two amendments by state Rep. Sylvester Turner to the Department of Public Safety's Sunset bill requiring the agency to implement an indigence program for its Orwellian-named Driver Responsibility surcharge. (See pp. 186-190 of the bill-pdf).According to material from the vendor, MSB Government Services, presently 6% of Texas drivers are subject to "driver responsibility" surcharges, but reportedly 65-70% of total fees go unpaid--largely because you can't get blood from a stone even if you take its drivers license away.The Sunset Bill requires DPS to create an "Indigence Program," something the agency previously had the authority to do but chose not to implement...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on July 03, 2009 (boomark / email).