[A]fter months of work, a bill that reforms traffic ticket policies was passed by the House and the Senate in the final hours of the legislative session.
The bill, H.571, makes it easier for Vermonters to get back on the road after their licenses are suspended because of the failure to pay a fine.
The agreement on the DLS bill was part of a late session flurry, as the House and Senate moved forward with a slew of judiciary measures. Bills that touch on threatening, stalking and privacy are all set to land on the governor’s desk.
Three members of the House and three members of the Senate negotiated the finer points of the DLS bill in a conference committee Thursday, debating which tickets will be eligible for reduced payment during a restoration period.
Ultimately, the conferees compromised. During a three-month restoration period slated to begin in September of this year, Vermonters will be able to pay off outstanding traffic violation tickets issued before July 1, 2012 for $30 per ticket.
The House bill had said that any ticket from before January 2015 would be eligible, while the Senate version set the date for 2007.
The legislation will dismiss all outstanding tickets from before July 1, 1990.
People who take advantage of the driver restoration period will have a chance to sign up for other programs to pay off tickets that were issued after the cutoff date. If someone can’t afford to pay a ticket in one lump sum, they can set up a monthly payment plan.
The legislation would also authorize traffic court to take into consideration whether a defendant has the ability to pay a ticket.
The agreement on the DLS bill paved the way for several other key judiciary measures to make the finish line.
On Friday, the House concurred with the Senate version of H.95, a bill that reforms the jurisdiction of cases with young defendants.
More cases involving teenage offenders will now begin on a family court docket, rather than an adult criminal court docket. The legislation also requires the Department of Corrections to keep inmates under the age of 25 separate from the general population, starting next year.
Both House and Senate judiciary leaders hailed the bill as a significant achievement.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, said that it’s the first time in years that incarceration policies for young people in the criminal justice system have been changed. Sears hopes the end result will be lower recidivism rates.
The bill allows young offenders to request expungement of certain crimes from their records, “which is a tremendous advantage for a young kid who makes a mistake,” Sears said.
Rep. Maxine Grad, D-Moretown, called the bill “an incredible accomplishment that many people inside and outside of this building have been working on for over 30 years.”
The bill, she said, changes policy around juvenile offenders to recognize “that they’re not adults and shouldn’t be treated that way.”
The House and Senate also came to an agreement on workplace safety rules in response to the killing of social worker Lara Sobel last summer. S.154 creates an enhanced penalty for assaulting social workers, similar to an offense for assaults on first-responders and law enforcement officers.
The final version includes a new misdemeanor criminal offense of threatening, as well as a provision that makes it easier for stalking victims to obtain civil protection orders.
Grad characterized the session as “incredibly successful,” especially on initiatives involving victim protections. She pointed to the stalking provisions in S.154 and H.533, a bill that clarifies when victims should be notified that an offender is being released from state custody.
Sears said Friday that there have been significant progress on judiciary initiatives, but he said that the failure to move forward on marijuana legalization has cast a shadow.
“This is the toughest session I’ve been through,” said Sears, who has served in the Statehouse for more than two decades.