Bush Whacking the Public Texas Style

News flash!!! STAY-AT-HOME Mother of 3 small children, sixth generation original Texan arrested today!!! Her crime? Failure to pay a 2^nd fine for two tickets she already paid the fines for!!!

Sounds a bit fishy doesn't it? And so it is, but not quite the way you would think.

Our story opens with a mother of 3 small children, recently relocated back to her home town of Austin Texas, driving along to pick up one kindergartner and twin second graders from school after taking care of her 90 year old grandmother all day.

Putting ourselves into her shoes for a moment, you haven't gotten your registration renewed because it hasn't arrived in the mail yet and admittedly you don't know where the local county tax assessor's office is located.

So of course the good county sheriff pulls you over for an expired registration.

You show him proof of insurance (cause you learned your lesson the last two times you forgot to renew it on time), but next thing you know you're being asked to step out of the car as three other squad cars arrive. Apparently you're some kind of big time dangerous criminal.

Your driver's license has been suspended and an arrest warrant was issued for the two tickets you paid off over a year ago.

To your shock and dismay you are handcuffed, placed in the back of a squad car and allowed to call your father before being hauled off to jail.

Your three small children are waiting at school for you to pick them up. Like your children, your husband doesn't know any of this is happening.

When you ask about the charges, the deputy arresting you doesn't really understand the charges himself. He tells you it has something to do with an unpaid "surcharge", but isn't able to tell you much more. Clearly he doesn't know anything about the law you have apparently broken.

Over the next 24 hours, you spend a night in a tiny holding cell with a cold concrete bench to lay on crowded in with eight other women.

Many were taken in for charges ranging from assault to drug possession as well as the usual couple of drunks. Those that are sober enough to understand you are stunned to find out you are there because of tickets you already paid.

And from here it only gets worse. You've never been in jail before, nor done anything that should have led to you being here.

You aren't the person the great state of Texas had in mind when they passed a little known law back in 2003 called the "Driver Responsibility Law". But you are exactly the kind of person whose life is going to be disrupted forever because of it.

With the start of the great Texas Warrant roundup this weekend, will come not only the arrests that seem to make sense given they are based on folks simply not taking care of business they knew they let slip, but also a surprisingly large number of people who took care of business like they were supposed to.

These poor folks are about to find out that just because you paid your fines, kept it straight, did your time, or anything else you were required to do by your local court, that it's not over.

There is a little known law that was passed in 2003, which the media was informed about, but only partially so.

It's called the "Driver Responsibility Law". Sounds sensible enough.

The public scoop was that the law was for the purpose of cracking down on DWI's.

Given the strong feelings most of us have towards people who insist on driving while drunk, as well as the horror over the thought of losing near and dear ones to some careless drunken slob, no one thought twice about it.

Who cares if a DWI convict is being punished for the same crime twice?

I certainly didn't. I don't want those people on the road at the same time as my family.

However, there was another part of the law that the media's attention in the great state of Texas wasn't called to.

It was because as rumor has it, this other part of the law was voted down by the Texas Legislature, the first time it was proposed.

It made it through the second time because it was tacked onto an Education bill. A typical dirty trick that finally led to the White House inventing the "Line item veto". Something we Texans might want to consider for this kind of nonsense.

So who's going to be affected by this law with the Texas Warrant Roundup in March of 2007?

Let's start with a stay at home mother of three small children, who 2004 and 2005 made the mistake of not renewing her insurance.

In each instance, in addition to renewing her insurance, she worked out a payment plan with the court for the hefty fines.

This poor woman, who's husband at the time was barely bringing home enough to make ends meet, had no idea there was another fine to pay. Of course it's not called a fine. In this case it's called a "Surcharge".

Something about getting fined for the same thing twice didn't sit right with folks. So they changed the name. It sounded too much like being tried for the same crime twice.

And now the fun begins.

DPS is supposed to notify you when you have a surcharge. And of course you have 30 days to work out a payment plan or your license will be suspended. After that, on grounds that are definitely questionable an arrest warrant is issued.

The problem with all of this is that it doesn't actually have anything to do with justice or even serving the public.

As long as you don't look at it too closely the law seems to make a logical sort of sense in that it theoretically keeps drunk drivers off the road by making it too expensive to drive.

But even on a superficial level after that the law falls apart.

In addition to a point system for moving violations (surprise!!), where 2 points are assessed for each violation and things get ugly when you hit 6 points inside a 3 year period, there are instant penalties for DWI offenses, driving with a suspended license, driving without a license and of course driving without insurance, which is also known as "Failure to maintain financial responsibility".

The phrase implies that if you are rich enough, obviously you don't need to have insurance. Curious how that works isn't it?

But what if you're one of the many folks in this great state who are barely getting by?

Does it make sense to level a second fine for 3 years straight on top of the fine you have already paid the first time?

Keep in mind the 1^st fine can be well over three hundred dollars. About what the insurance would cost.

Now along comes this surcharge which is $250 per year for 3 years from the date of the offense,... for each offense and by the way it's retroactive. Which means you can easily owe it all at once.

All of which can take place without your ever knowing about it.

And since you don't know about it, you can suddenly find yourself in jail. The only way you can get out of course is to post bail. And naturally bail varies depending on the judge and the county you are in. In the case of our unsuspecting house wife it's $1500.

If she were in the same financial boat as a few years back when her husband lost his job in the big dot com crash, that would have been insurmountable which is exactly what it is for the average person who lets their insurance lapse because they can't afford the high rates.

Of course, if you're one of those poor people who happens to be working, jail time means you lose your job.

So here you are. Can't afford the insurance, can't afford the fines and of course can't afford the "surcharge" that comes with showing up in court and admitting you're guilty as well as trying to find a way to pay the fine.

In other words more people will end up in jail, taking up beds and jail cells that actually belong to the real criminals, like murders, rapist, robbers, child molesters, drug smugglers and apparently some of our politicians.

Since this law is clearly not about justice or serving the public, what is it about and who is it intended to serve?

The answer lays in who benefits from the "surcharge" (FINE) collected.

One percent goes to DPS for carrying out the law. Which means it's not really about or even for DPS.

Ninety nine percent goes to the Trauma Centers Fund and the Texas General Revenue Fund, of course to be handed out by the Texas State Comptroller's office. The catch being that it's not clear just how that 99% is broken up between the two funds.

Also with each "surcharge" there is an additional $17 dollar charge that goes to a private company for collecting the money and managing the program for DPS. (For some reason I don't think DPS really wants anything to do with this program. Wonder why?)

In part 2 we will look at who uses the Texas General Revenue Fund and who owns the company that collects the $17 fee.

In the mean time, please call DPS as soon as you possibly can and keep those jail cells open for the real crooks!!! Our wives, mothers, children and grandchildren don't belong in there next to our politicians who passed this law.