On February 28th the Senate Judiciary Committee held its fifth hearing on
Senate Bill 37. OPLC submitted proponent testimony alongside the Fines and Fees Justice Center, the R Street Institute, and the City of Columbus. All written testimony that was submitted can be found
here and video of the hearing
here.
Following the hearing, the Committee adopted an amendment to SB 37 that would take a step backward on some of the changes to non-compliance suspensions but would also improve the license forfeiture suspension changes. The amendment reverts the non-compliance suspension provisions standardizing reinstatement fee of $25 back to the as-introduced version of the bill that would keep the high reinstatement fee schedule of $40 for a first offense, $300 for a second offense, and $600 for a third offense but reduce the window for offenses to be considered repeat offenses from five years (current law) to one year.
Although the non-compliance changes were a step back, the amendment also takes two steps forward with changes to license forfeiture suspensions. The amendment requires the Registrar of Motor Vehicles to automatically remove driver's license suspensions and any associated motor vehicle registration suspensions that were imposed for the failure to appear for a minor misdemeanor or failure to pay a fine or fee (rather than the person applying for the removal). This provision is a tremendous step in ensuring Ohioans will reap the benefits of SB 37.
No opponents provided testimony during the February hearing so, as the legislature returns to work now that the March primary is over, we hope that SB 37 will be well-positioned to be voted out of Senate Judiciary Committee in April or May. We are encouraging supporters to contact the Chair of the Committee, Senator Manning, to ask that he move SB 37 out of Committee as-is.
In more driver’s license news, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland released its report, “Providing Labor Market Context for Debt-Related Driver’s License Suspensions in Ohio.” The report found that “DRS have the potential to significantly impact Ohio’s labor force. For example, if just half of those with a DRS were to comply, the impact statewide could result in a potential loss of over 830,000 working or work-seeking individuals from the labor force.” Please take a look at the full report
here.
You may have noticed a new look as part of this newsletter. Just last week we “unveiled” our new logo and branding. With our umbrella organization changing its structure to Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio, we refreshed our look to better align with its new branding.
