Legislation gives parking violators more leeway

A proposal currently being reviewed by the state Senate Transportation Committee seeks to change the law on banning driver license renewals depending on the number of unpaid parking tickets the applicant motorist has incurred.

State Sen. Dave Hildenbrand (R-Lowell) introduced Senate Bill (SB) 130 on Thursday, Feb. 10 to amend the Michigan Vehicle Code.

Currently the law states that a license will not be renewed if the motorist failed to respond to three or more parking violation notices or citations. The proposal seeks to change that number to six.

“It allows more leeway,” said state Rep. Hugh Crawford (R-Walled Lake, Wixom). “Three sounds kind of short so it’s something for us to look at. It could have some merit especially in these economic times and could be considered a compromise, but I need to look at the whole bill before I say I’d favor it or not.”

The bill maintains language stating that once the Secretary of State, upon being informed of the motorist’s failure to appear or comply, shall not issue or renew a license to the person until the court informs the agency that the person has resolved all outstanding matters regarding the notices or citations, and once the person has paid to the court a $45 driver license clearance fee. However, if the court determines that the person is responsible for only one parking violation or less than six parking violations for which the person’s license was not issued or renewed, the court may waive payment of the fee.

“At first glance I’m not in favor of it; however, it’s been a while since we visited this topic,” said state Rep. Eileen Kowall (R-Highland, White Lake). “I don’t know if we should be using parking tickets to take away people’s licenses.”