Lawmakers consider requiring payment plans for toll and automated enforcement debts to reduce debt traps and improve collections

Delegate Stewart introduced House Bill 14-65 to require the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) to set up payment-plan structures for motorists to resolve toll violations and automated speed-camera fines. The bill aims to reduce debt traps that result when unpaid fines are sent to collections and lead to registration flags or suspension.

Delia Bonsour, presenting the bill, said payment plans assist drivers by allowing manageable monthly payments rather than leaving large debts to accumulate in collections. "Payment plans are good for two reasons. 1, they allow people to escape a debt vicious cycle, and 2, they generally improve collections and increase revenue," Bonsour told the committee. She explained that courts and the central collections unit (CCU) offer some payment options now, but MDTA and MDOT do not have broad, upstream income-based plans in place for automated citations and tolls.

Consumer-advocate witnesses supported the bill as a fairness and collections measure. Franz Schneiderman of Consumer Auto Maryland said Maryland remains one of a small number of states that suspend or place flags on registrations for unpaid toll debts and that outstanding toll debts have saddled tens of thousands of drivers. He cited reporting that roughly 46,000 Maryland drivers had registration flags tied to toll debts.

Testimony acknowledged practical obstacles. MDTA is developing a payment-plan program, and the judiciary offers payment arrangements tied to court processes; both agencies argued that an income-based requirement would create administrative burdens. Bonsour said she plans to amend the bill to remove an income-based requirement to align with existing MDTA and judiciary approaches and to negotiate with MDOT on how the agencies would be compensated for administering plans because fines generally go to the state general fund rather than transportation accounts.

Committee members asked whether entering a payment plan would clear registration flags; witnesses said that in MDTA’s proposed plan a down payment and enrollment would generally cause the flag to be removed while a default could return the flag. No vote was recorded; sponsors said they would work with MDOT and MDTA on technical fixes to avoid net fiscal harm to transportation agencies.