Analysis suggests alcohol-related car device bill could increase driver license review hearings
During the first state Senate committee discussion on December 13 regarding a bill requiring Florida drivers who refuse alcohol breath tests to have related devices installed in their cars, a panel member asked about a potential consequence — increased administrative hearings.
Sen. Tracie Davis, a Jacksonville Democrat, was referring in her question to a section of the first staff analysis on SB 260 that said the bill could cost $1.1 million dollars annually due to a need for eight additional full-time hearing officers in the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV).
Those officers would help with the “significant increase in the number of driver license review hearings that the Bureau of Administrative Review (BAR) will have to conduct,” states the analysis.
“With this being in the staff analysis that this may have a negative impact on DHSMV, as far as staffing, do you see there being a need for them to ramp up with possibly the increase of suspensions that may occur?” Davis asked the bill sponsor on December 13.
Bill sponsor Nick DiCeglie, a St. Petersburg Republican and chair of the Senate Committee on Transportation where the bill was heard, only acknowledged that the department was anticipating an increase in administrative hearings.
“There’s a process to ultimately fight that,” DiCeglie said about a driver’s refusal leading to having a device installed in their car. “I think the department is anticipating folks taking that route.”
DiCeglie added: “I know it can be inconvenient for some folks but, at the end of the day, anything we can do not only to hold folks accountable but maybe even discourage folks from driving while intoxicated, even more than we do now, is really the spirit of this bill.”
Davis and another Democrat on the panel, Sen. Victor Torres of Kissimmee, both supported the bill in its first hearing where it passed unanimously but said they wanted DiCeglie to look into offsetting the costs of the device for low-income families.
To their point, the bill requires the costs associated with installing and maintaining the device be paid for by the driver. The device can cost between $70 and $170 to install and $50 to $120 per month for “leasing and monitoring,” per the staff analysis.
Jonathan Weber, the policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, said these costs could be “overwhelming” to low-income Floridians.
“By requiring people to choose between basic living expenses such as rent, food, medicine, or necessities for their children, this bill sets people up for failure,” said Weber. “It’s choices like this that set well-intentioned people on a downward spiral of even more fines, fees, legal obligations, and troubles.”
Weber recommended lawmakers include in the bill a program to assist low-income families with the cost, like state legislators have done for a similar law in Tennessee.
Current law already requires that after the first time a person refuses an alcohol breath test, they lose their license for a year through an administrative suspension. It also requires the device be installed in their car for at least six months after they are convicted of their first DUI if their blood-alcohol level was at or above .15 or there was a minor in the vehicle.
Aaron Wayt, the legislative chair for the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said his group was against the bill currently, and encouraged lawmakers to discuss it with defense attorneys since they are involved in the administrative side of license suspension, and prosecutors and judges are not.
“A lot of times it’s just the defense attorney and someone from the DMV,” said Wayt. “If you have any DUI defense attorneys in your area, speak with them about the concerns they have with DMV right now in that process.”
