Session Ends Without Law On Licenses Penalty Reforms Never Get Vote In Senate

Sweeping legislation to reform Idaho’s harsh penalties for driving with a suspended driver’s license was withdrawn Tuesday, without ever getting a Senate vote, as the Legislature rushed to adjourn.

The 40-page bill had earlier passed the House unanimously.

“It was a lot of work this year, and obviously I’m disappointed that it didn’t pass,” said Rep. Bill Sali, who headed a House subcommittee that helped craft the bill. “I think it’s a good idea.”

Before Sali’s subcommittee started work on the legislation, it went through 14 months of study by a committee put together by the Idaho Transportation Department, with representation from groups ranging from county prosecutors to judges to police to transportation officials.

Tuesday afternoon, Sali said he got a call identifying a last-minute glitch: The bill amends the same section of law that contains the drunken driving standard, and that means it conflicts with the bill that lowers Idaho’s drunken-driving standard from 0.10 percent blood-alcohol content to 0.08 percent.

“It didn’t match,” said Freeman Duncan, legislative liaison for the attorney general’s office. “It’s just an unfortunate thing that wasn’t caught.”

Gov. Phil Batt signed the 0.08 bill into law on Monday. Duncan said if the driver’s license bill were to pass as-is, it could erase the 0.08 bill.

“At least at a minimum, we would have ended up with confusion,” Duncan said.

The problem could be solved with a simple amendment, but the Legislature was pushing to adjourn.

The House adjourned for the year at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, skipping over the license bill on its final agenda because the Senate hadn’t sent it over.

The Senate nearly finished, passing more than 70 bills a day in marathon sessions both Monday and Tuesday. It will convene at 8:30 this morning to deal with the last dozen or so bills.

Duncan said the problem with conflicting bills isn’t uncommon. This year, there are “three if not four bills with different versions of the public records law.”

Those will be ironed out through merging them, Duncan said.

But Sen. Hal Bunderson, R-Meridian, who was scheduled to sponsor the driver’s license bill in the Senate, didn’t want to do anything to endanger the 0.08 bill, which he also sponsored. So the bill was withdrawn.

“There was just not enough time to amend it again,” Bunderson said.

That means for at least another year, Idahoans will continue to be sent to prison for a third offense of “driving without privileges.” Idaho law makes the third offense a felony. It also imposes mandatory minimum jail terms and additional, mandatory minimum license suspensions for first and second offenses.

The bill, HB356, would have eliminated the charge of felony DWP; eliminated the mandatory minimum jail terms and license suspensions, while leaving the maximums the same; allowed increased use of restricted driving permits if a judge feels they’re necessary; and allowed first-time offenders charged with driving without proof of insurance to get insurance before their court date.

It also would have eliminated multiple fines that stem from the same offense.

Supporters said many of the provisions were aimed at giving judges more leeway in dealing with individual cases.

Idaho now has more than 100 inmates in its overcrowded state prison system for whom DWP was the most serious offense they committed.

The state has 52 reasons why an Idaho driver’s license may be suspended. Those who continue to drive after their licenses are suspended face compounding penalties that ultimately lead to prison.

, DataTimes