Fiscal Note & Local Impact Statement
127 th General Assembly of Ohio
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BILL: |
DATE: |
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STATUS: |
SPONSOR: |
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LOCAL IMPACT
STATEMENT REQUIRED: |
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CONTENTS: |
Permits
license suspension of up to 180 days for any person who buys an underage
person beer or intoxicating liquor |
Note: The state fiscal year is July 1 through June 30. For example, FY 2009 is July 1, 2008 – June
30, 2009.
* For the purposes herein, LSC
fiscal staff defines "minimal" as an estimated annual amount of less
than $100,000 for the state.
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State Bureau of Motor
Vehicles Fund (Fund 4W4). In the event a court opts to administer a
license suspension that extends beyond 90 days, the offender will incur a mandatory
license reinstatement fee of $30, all of which is deposited into the state
treasury to the credit of the existing State Bureau of Motor Vehicles Fund
(Fund 4W4). The court also has the
option of confiscating the license after issuing a suspension. If, in fact, the court chooses to confiscate
a license, it is collected and later sent to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV)
and ultimately destroyed; in this particular instance, assuming the license has
not yet expired, the offender will also incur a fee of $19.50 to purchase a
duplicate license, $2.50 of which is also deposited into Fund 4W4. As of this writing, LSC fiscal staff has found
no discernible evidence that the bill will result in a significant increase in
the number of court-ordered license suspensions. This means that the potential magnitude of the gain in Fund 4W4
revenues is likely to be no more than minimal annually.
·
State Highway Safety Fund
(Fund 036). If a court administers a license suspension
beyond 90 days, and if that court further opts to confiscate the license, the
license is then sent to BMV, where it is destroyed. LSC fiscal staff has learned from BMV that, of the aforementioned
$19.50 license duplication fee, $12 is deposited into the State Highway Safety
Fund (Fund 036) for
the purpose of defraying the Department's costs associated with the
administration and enforcement of the motor vehicle and traffic laws of
Ohio. (Five dollars of the fee is
retained by the deputy registrar as a service charge.) As of this writing, LSC fiscal staff has
found no discernible evidence that this bill will result in a significant
increase in the number of court-ordered license suspensions and subsequent
reinstatements. This means that the
potential magnitude of the gain in Fund 036 revenues is likely to be no
more than minimal annually.
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LOCAL
GOVERNMENT |
FY 2008 – FUTURE YEARS |
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Counties and
Municipalities |
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Revenues |
- 0 - |
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Expenditures |
Potential negligible*
annual effect |
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Note: For most local governments, the fiscal year is the calendar year. The school district fiscal year is July 1 through June 30.
* For the purposes herein, LSC fiscal staff defines "negligible" as an estimated annual amount no more than $1,000 for any affected county or municipality.
·
County and municipal courts
and clerks. If a court administers a license suspension
beyond 90 days, and if that court also opts to confiscate the license, the
license is then sent to BMV, where it is destroyed. It is theoretically plausible, then, to assume that this license
"confiscation and transport" process could potentially, though not
likely, result in an increased workload for county and municipal courts and
clerks. At this time, however, LSC
fiscal staff has found no discernible evidence that the bill will significantly
increase the number of licenses confiscated and sent to BMV. This means that the potential magnitude of
any increase in expenditures for county and municipal courts and clerks is not
likely to be more than negligible annually.
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Overview
For the purposes of this fiscal
analysis, the bill most notably:
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Allows
the court to suspend, for not more than 180 days, the driver's license,
commercial driver's license, temporary instruction permit, or nonresident
operating privilege of an offender who buys beer or furnishes beer or
intoxicating liquor to an underage person.
·
Excludes
parents and spouses from being subjected to the optional 180-day suspension
penalty.
State fiscal effects
Bureau of Motor Vehicles
The Department
of Public Safety's Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) is responsible for collecting
a reinstatement fee for any license suspended beyond 90 days. If a court confiscates a license and
forwards it to BMV, BMV incurs the additional responsibility of destroying that
license and then collecting a fee for the offender's eventual purchase of a
duplicate license, once the suspension has been lifted and assuming the license
has not expired.
The
reinstatement fee is $30, all of which is deposited into the state treasury to the credit of the
existing State Bureau of Motor Vehicles Fund (Fund 4W4) for the purpose of
paying the expenses of administering the law relative to the powers and duties
of the Registrar of Motor Vehicles. The
fee for purchasing a duplicate license, if necessary, is $19.50. This fee is allocated as follows:
·
$12 is deposited into the State Highway Safety Fund
(Fund 036) for
the purpose of defraying the Department's costs associated with the
administration and enforcement of the motor vehicle and traffic laws of Ohio.
·
$5
is retained by the deputy registrar for costs associated with the production of
a duplicate license, which likely includes costs such as lamination and
photography.
·
$2.50
is deposited into Fund 4W4 for the
purpose of paying the expenses of administering the law relative to the powers
and duties of the Registrar of Motor Vehicles.
At this time,
LSC fiscal staff has found no discernible evidence that the bill will result in
a significant increase in the number of court-ordered license suspensions. This means that the potential magnitude of
the gain in Fund 4W4 and Fund 036 revenues is likely to be no more than minimal
annually. For the purposes of this
fiscal analysis, minimal is defined as a dollar amount estimated at less than
$100,000 per year for either state fund.
Local fiscal effects
County and municipal court workloads
In researching the bill's
local fiscal effects, LSC fiscal staff contacted representatives from the
Judicial Conference of Ohio (JCO), the state's Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and
the Ohio Association of Municipal/County Court Clerks. After conversing with these aforementioned
parties, to the degree that a consensus emerged, it was that the bill would not
significantly increase the number of court-ordered license suspensions.
LSC fiscal staff spoke with
judges from both rural and urban counties and found that: (1) few cases of
buying or furnishing beer or intoxicating liquor to an underage person passed
through the courts annually, with one judge even indicating her records showed
no related cases over the past few years, (2) it was the opinion of one judge
that these types of cases may not always be pursued by law enforcement and, by
extension, the courts in larger cities or metropolitan areas, and (3) in the
event a court does in fact suspend a license, the decision to confiscate it or
not varies from court to court, thus providing no readily discernible or
statistical method for predicting the frequency of license confiscation. Additionally, a representative of the JCO
indicated to LSC fiscal staff that they did not foresee any notable fiscal
impact on county or municipal courts and clerks as a result of the bill.
In sum, LSC fiscal staff has
collected no evidence suggesting that the bill's potential effect on increasing
the annual workload and related operating expenses of county and municipal
courts and clerks of courts will be readily discernible, and from a fiscal
perspective, the term best used would be negligible. For the purposes of this analysis, negligible means an estimated
annual cost of no more than $1,000 for any affected county or municipal court
or affiliated clerk of courts.
LSC fiscal staff: Jeffrey R. Kasler, Budget Analyst