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 alcohol |
Note: The state
fiscal year is July 1 through June 30.
For example, FY 2008 is July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2008.
* For the purposes of this analysis, LSC fiscal staff defines
"minimal" as no greater than $100,000 per annum.
·
State Bureau of Motor
Vehicles Fund (Fund 4W4). The bill provides the optional penalty of
suspending the driver's license, commercial driver's license, temporary
instruction permit, or nonresident operating privilege for a period not to
exceed 180 days of any person who buys or furnishes beer or intoxicating liquor
to an underage person. 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 this 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.
·
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 this $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. 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. This means that the potential magnitude of
the gain in Fund 036 revenues is likely to be no more than minimal.
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LOCAL
GOVERNMENT |
FY 2008 |
FY 2009 |
FUTURE YEARS |
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Counties and Municipalities |
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Revenues |
- 0 - |
- 0 - |
- 0 - |
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Expenditures |
Potential negligible*
effect |
Potential negligible* effect |
Potential negligible* 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 of this analysis, LSC fiscal staff defines "negligible" as no greater than $1,000 per annum.
·
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 this bill will
significantly increase the number of licenses confiscated and sent to BMV. This means that the potential magnitude of
increase in expenditures for county and municipal courts and clerks is not
likely to be more than negligible.
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Overview
For the purposes of this fiscal
analysis, the bill most notably:
·
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 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
collected by the BMV Deputy Registrar for costs associated with the production
of a duplicate license, which likely includes costs such as lamination and
photography.
·
$2.50
deposited into the 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.
At this time,
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. This means that the
potential magnitude of the gain in Fund 4W4, Fund 036, and BMV Deputy Registrar
revenues is likely to be no more than minimal.
Local fiscal effects
County and municipal court workloads
In researching the local
fiscal effects of this bill, LSC fiscal staff contacted representatives from
the Ohio Judicial Conference, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and multiple
trustees of the Ohio Municipal and County Court's Association. Although the optional 180-day suspension
penalty specifically provided for in this bill is a mechanism not currently
available to county and municipal court officials, at this time, and after
consultation with the aforementioned parties, there does not appear to be any
evidence that this bill will significantly increase the number of court-ordered
licenses suspended.
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 Ohio
Judicial Conference (JCO) indicated to LSC fiscal staff that JCO did not
foresee any notable fiscal impact on county or municipal courts and clerks as a
result of this bill. As such, and at
this time, LSC fiscal staff has found no readily discernible evidence indicating
an increase beyond negligible in the workload for county or municipal courts
and clerks. This means that the potential magnitude of increase in expenditures for
county and municipal courts and clerks is also not likely to be more than
negligible.
LSC fiscal staff: Jeffrey R. Kasler, Budget Analyst