Commissioner: Courts need driver's license suspension for failing to pay fines

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean told Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre, Friday that a bill sponsored by Rep. Casey Knudsen, R-Malta, to end courts being able to suspend drivers' licenses for people failing to pay court-ordered fines and fees is a bad idea.

"The fact of the matter is that suspending a driver's license is a leverage that people feel the consequences of and often-times come in and pay those fines," McLean said.

Bachmeier was the only local legislator at Friday's videoconference held in a conference room at Northern Montana Hospital, and he had to leave a few minutes after it started when a procedural vote on a bill to continue Medicaid expansion came up.

The House passed the bill by Rep. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, later Friday and on a final vote Saturday, sending it to the Senate.

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McLean said the bill ending the ability of courts of lower jurisdiction to suspend drivers' licenses when court fees and fines are not paid will increase costs.

"There are many reasons why that is going to increase costs to counties and to court systems because the alternative is to arrest people ... and put them in jail, instead of working with these people to get these fines paid," she said.

She said some are arguing that it is a right-to-work issue, that people have to have their license to do their job. It is not, she said.

"It's a lack of personal responsibility that's leading to this whole situation," McLean said. "It has nothing to do with people wanting to take drivers' licenses away; that is not the desire of courts, and they give people chance after chance after chance."

Courts losing that leverage would create greater problems, she said.

"If they are put in jail instead of doing this driver's license suspension when it gets to that point, they will lose their jobs, they won't have people to take care of their kids, it is going to be a bigger burden to society. ... It is a piece of leverage that hits people where they care about," McLean said.

Suspending the licenses is a last resort of the courts, she added.

"The time frame and the multiple avenues that people are given to get those fines taken care of," she said. "Personally, I find it very interesting that our courts are so willing to work with people in so many ways."

She said the county also continues to support legislation that would allow the offices of election administrators to start counting mail-in ballots early. Counting the ballots takes a significant amount of time, McLean said, and delays election results and drives up overtime costs.

Bachmeier said he believes that bill will be voted on in committee this week, and expects it to pass out of committee.

"I think it will be a close vote on the floor," he said.

McLean also said the Hill County Commission continues to oppose a proposal to charge local governments to help fund the state Office of Public Defender, although she added that the bill might be completely changed by the time it comes out of committee.

McLean said a study to get the fiscal note and cost-basis is proposed, so it might end up in a completely different format.

She said the information presented to the Legislature that increased court costs in local governments, with crime going up, is not correct.

She said one problem is people are not being screened well for their ability to pay fees to cover public defender costs, often a comparatively nominal fee of $250 or $800 for legal work. Many people who could pay are having the fees waived, McLean said.