The House of Representatives today passed legislation that will reduce the number of drivers affected by the driver responsibility fees. The complaints about the driver responsibility fees is that good drivers who make minor mistakes are being assessed these fees. Substitutes for HB 4604, 4098, HB 4101 and 5603 repealed the fee for all but the most dangerous drivers.

 

The League was very involved with this legislation because $8.5 million of those fees go towards fire protection grants, which are dollars that make up for public safety services to communities that have state buildings (and don’t receive taxes for those properties).  At the insistence of the League and several legislators whose communities rely on those fees, the legislation was amended to ensure that the first $8.5 million generated from the remaining fees go towards fire protection grants.

 

The balance of the dollars that will be lost are general fund dollars so there will be an even bigger general fund deficit, but that won’t be the case until 2012.

 

Thanks go out to Rep. Mark Meadows, Rep. Joan Bauer, Rep. Vicki Barnett, Rep. Rick Hammel, and others who fought to ensure that the legislation continued to protect communities that rely on these dollars.  The bills now go to the Senate, and could be considered during lame duck.

Andy Schor is the Assistant Director of State Affairs for the Michigan Municipal League. Contact him at (517) 908-0300 or by email at aschor@mml.org.

 

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