Committee approves bill to stop suspending driver’s licenses for failure to appear or pay—effective once funding replaces lost reinstatement fees

Senate Bill 623, presented by Senator Clark with attorney Sarah Everett, would end the practice of suspending a person's driver's license for failure to appear or failure to pay in district court proceedings and is intended to help defendants keep access to employment and means of meeting fines.

Sarah Everett told the committee: "This bill is pretty simple. It would end, the use of driver's license suspension as an additional punishment for failure to appear and failure to pay in court." She said continuing to allow revocation effectively deprives rural residents of the ability to get to work and push them deeper into indebtedness.

Bill Bridal (identified in the transcript as the director of the Arkansas State Police) and Major Mark Hollingsworth warned the committee that the Arkansas State Police receives reinstatement-fee revenue tied to driver's-license suspensions and that ending suspension for these reasons could reduce agency revenue. Bridal cited historical collections and a prior tax-offset process that recovered some revenue. The committee asked whether an appropriation or funding replacement mechanism could address the impact; sponsors responded by including an effective-date provision: the act would take effect 90 days after an appropriation is made to fully replace the estimated annual loss in driver's-license reinstatement-fee revenue, with the Department of Finance and Administration required to notify legislative entities once funding is secured.

After that funding-replacement assurance, Colonel Bridal said his concerns were substantially alleviated and the committee voted by voice vote to report SB623 do pass.