Unpaid traffic fines in Texas invalidate licenses

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More than 750,000 Texans are driving without valid licenses because they haven’t paid stiff annual penalties – as much as $2,000 for three years – added to various traffic violations in 2004.

The state has nearly $620 million in uncollected surcharges on convictions that include driving while intoxicated, failure to provide insurance and having an invalid license, according to figures compiled by the Texas Department of Public Safety and provided to The Dallas Morning News.

The surcharges are part of the Texas Driver Responsibility Program, which was approved by the legislature and implemented in September 2004 by DPS. The money is earmarked for trauma care.

The biggest fees are for DWI: $1,000 a year for three years for the first conviction, $1,500 a year for the second and $2,000 a year for any conviction with a blood-alcohol content at least twice the legal limit (0.16 or greater). Those caught without insurance or with an invalid license are supposed to pay $250 per year for three years.

The idea was to levy hefty fines for certain violations to discourage those types of offenses and raise funding for pressing needs. But just 32 percent of the surcharges have been collected.

Despite the highest fees, DWI violators had the best rate of paying or continuing to pay at 39 percent. The lowest rate was among those cited for having an invalid license – 26 percent. Drivers ticketed for no insurance were paying at a rate of 38 percent.

State officials said some people avoid paying by gambling that they won’t get stopped again – the main way those who haven’t paid are caught. When drivers are caught, the fines mount because they are driving illegally with suspended licenses.

Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, who sponsored the legislation, and other lawmakers wonder whether the penalties are so high that they actually provide an incentive for people not to pay. But the legislature didn’t reduce the fees in its latest session, leaving it to DPS to devise ways to improve the collection rate.