Marshall Pahl, Vermont’s deputy defender general, has seen a damaging loop play out time and again. A driver gets pulled over and ticketed but can’t afford to pay the fine; the state then suspends their license. If that happens repeatedly, what started out as a civil infraction can in time become a crime.
“To take those people and tell them, as a response to your inability to pay, we’re going to make it impossible for you to go to work — to go out and find work, if you don’t already have work — it simply makes no sense,” Pahl told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee late last week.
Pahl was pushing for H.53, a bill that would eliminate the state’s ability to suspend a person’s driving privileges solely because they have not paid the fine for a moving violation — such as speeding, running a red light or banging an unlawful uey.
The bill cleared the House last month and, on Friday, passed unanimously out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Last year, nearly 4,000 Vermonters had their licenses suspended because they did not pay the fines for moving violations, which accounted for about 45% of all license suspensions in the state. Drivers typically have 30 days to pay a moving violation fine before facing a suspension.
H.53 would not restore licenses that have already been suspended. Nor would it nix license suspensions for criminal-level driving violations, such as driving under the influence or negligent operation. The goal is not to let dangerous drivers off the hook, Pahl said, but rather to keep people from driving illegally out of necessity.
In many cases, he noted, people with suspended licenses just keep driving anyway.
“There are other barriers to people getting their license back, but I think this bill is one more effort that could make a difference for many Vermonters,” Willa Farrell, who heads up court diversion services at the state Attorney General’s Office, said last week.
The Legislature did away with driver’s license suspensions for the nonpayment of fines for non-moving violations — such as parking tickets — in 2016.
State officials told senators that the socioeconomic benefits of H.53 to people with lower incomes would outweigh the bill’s financial impact on the state. If the bill passes, fewer people would be paying the $80 fee charged by the Department of Motor Vehicles to reinstate a license, according to the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Office, which estimates that the state’s transportation fund would lose roughly $200,000 a year as a result.
That’s “pretty insignificant,” Chris Rupe, a joint fiscal analyst, told senators. Rupe also noted that the DMV could expect to save some costs upon passage, since it would not need to mail out as many suspension notices.
The DMV, for its part, is “neutral” on the bill, Deputy Commissioner Michael Smith said.
— Shaun Robinson
————
Final Reading is VTDigger’s inside guide to the Statehouse, delivered to your inbox Tuesday through Friday evenings. Sign up here.
————
IN THE KNOW
Last year, Vermont banned school mascots that are based on offensive stereotypes. Now two racial justice advocates are seeking to change that law.
On Tuesday, Mia Schultz, the president of the Rutland Area NAACP, and Judy Dow, the executive director of Indigenous advocacy group Gedakina, appeared via Zoom before the Senate Education Committee and asked lawmakers to revisit Act 152, saying it kept power in the hands of school officials and not complainants.
Earlier this year, Dow and Schultz submitted complaints seeking to retire eight school mascots across Vermont. During that process, they said, they met obstacles, hate mail, and critical media coverage.
“We began to realize that the process was (relying) on the marginalized communities to prove harm, and that the school boards weren’t actually qualified or trained to understand when a mascot was harmful,” Dow said.
In response, committee chair Sen. Brian Campion, D-Bennington, asked the advocates to set up a meeting with the Vermont Agency of Education, which has the final say over school mascots.
If the parties come out of that meeting with recommendations, Campion said, the committee could consider whether to add them to legislation.
“We’ll likely still have a bill that we could attach some changes to,” he said.
— Peter D’Auria
ON THE MOVE
The Vermont Senate unanimously approved a bill Wednesday that would regulate manufacturers selling menstrual and cosmetic products that contain PFAS and a list of other chemicals associated with human health problems.
The bill, S.25, would also ban athletic turf fields and textiles — including household textiles, clothing and outdoor apparel — that contain PFAS.
“Managing PFAS in consumer products is a cornerstone of how we need to be dealing with PFAS, generally,” Matt Chapman, director of the state’s Waste Management and Prevention Division, told lawmakers last month.
— Emma Cotton
VISITING DIGNITARIES
In her first trip to Vermont since her husband assumed the presidency in January 2021, first lady Jill Biden visited Beta Technologies in Burlington on Wednesday where she and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona touted the White House’s efforts to fund workforce development and technical education.
As she walked into the aerospace developer’s hangar, located next to Burlington International Airport, Biden shouted a cheery “hello!” to the Beta employees and interns, students, Vermont lawmakers and press awaiting her inside.
“For most people, a high school diploma alone isn’t enough to find a great career, but they don’t often need a four year degree to pursue their passions either,” Biden said in a speech at the hangar. “And as this technology brings changes to so many industries, these kinds of learning paths are more important than ever.”
— Sarah Mearhoff
WHAT WE’RE READING
Often unseen, bus drivers can help schools find and support homeless students (The 74)
Advisory board contests Vermont State Police’s characterization in trooper resignation announcement (VTDigger)
The Conversation Artist: Podcaster Erica Heilman Seeks the Meaning of Life, One Interview at a Time (Seven Days)