The Special Committee on Restricted Driving Privileges

Members of the Kansas Legislature joined together at the State Capitol for a Special Committee on Restricted Driving Privileges. This committee was in response to SB 2 by Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau (D-Sedgwick County). For years, Sen. Faust-Goudeau has been working to pass legislation that would allow certain individuals with revoked licenses to be eligible for certain driving privileges. SB 2 is similar to SB 317, a bill that Sen. Faust-Goudeau had sponsored last year where it died in Committee on Judiciary.

The special committee took place on Tuesday, August 29, and lasted over five hours.

According to current Kansas law, individuals found to have failed to comply with a traffic citation can have their license suspended (with the exception of parking tickets). In lieu of suspension, drivers can apply for “restricted driving privileges.” Under these privileges, individuals are allowed to drive for specific circumstances including: Going to or returning from a person’s place of employment or school, going to or returning from an appointment with a healthcare provider or during an emergency, and going to or returning from probation or parole meetings, drug or alcohol counseling, or any place that a person is required to go to by a court.

SB 2 would expand who could qualify for restricted driving privileges to include a person found driving whilst their license is canceled, suspended, or revoked for failure to comply.

Adam Sievers, Office Over Advisors Statutes, explained what this means at the committee meeting.

“Essentially, their license has been suspended already,” Sievers said. “They may or may not know it. Then, they drive, they get pulled over essentially, and found to not have a valid license. Under current law, they would not be eligible for these restricted driving privileges. Senate Bill 2 would expand the eligibility for these individuals so they could qualify for application to restricted driving privileges. Under current law they would be essentially rejected just outright.”

Sievers also stated that under current law there is a one-year limit on how long restricted driving privileges are allowed, however, this would be extended to up to three years due to that being the duration of how long a license can be revoked.

Chair of the Racial Profiling Advisory Board of Wichita Kansas Sheila Officer provided a fact and final analysis of a 2021 audit from the Kansas Department of Revenue regarding the impact of the financial aspect of the suspension and revocations of licenses. Officer also provided a document showing almost 25 states that have eliminated suspensions and revocations of driver’s licenses. A third document was a three-page debt-based driver’s license suspension fact sheet which provided the financial implications addressing the state of Kansas as well as the financial impact on families along with solutions to assist in passing a bill.

According to the information Officer provided, the number of suspensions and revocations as of 2021 for the state of Kansas was approximately 196,000. Officer said she is “quite sure” the number now is over 200,000 with over 40,000 being in Wichita alone.

“The truth is Kansas families are hurting,” Officer said. “If their license are suspended or if their license are revoked, how can they get to work? How can they get to healthcare? How can they get to classes? How can they get housing? It affects families. It is a hardship for families.”

Officer also stated the suspension Kansans get is not as temporary as it may appear, stating it has been a “permanent life sentence” for some of the families in Kansas. She referenced workshops the Racial Profiling Board has had where they have addressed this issue since 2017, claiming more than 250 people attended one of these workshops in 2019 with some attendees testifying that their license has been suspended for over 20 years.

Former Republican Representative for District 81 and current Sedgwick County Commissioner Jim Howell also spoke in favor of this bill, recalling back to 2011 when he first entered the legislature and heard Sen. Faust-Goudeau raise some of the issues they were discussing.

“This issue, I believe, is really about poverty,” Howell said. “It’s really not a partisan issue. Most of us in this room, myself, if I get a speeding ticket, I’m going to pay my ticket. I think for us, we have the money. We have the wherewithal to pay our tickets, and we learned our lesson, and we moved on. If you don’t have the money, and you don’t pay that ticket… these people don’t pay the ticket, they don’t really understand the consequences, they end up on a suspended license. They may not even know they’re on a suspended license. As a consequence, they make another bad choice. They end up getting caught driving on a suspended license.”

During the special committee, Sen. Faust-Goudeau shared some of her thoughts behind SB 2:

“I kind of wanted to get straight to the point. I simply wanted those with a revoked driver’s license to participate in the current program within the Department of Revenue Driver Solution to whereas an individual could submit an application, and they would have 12 months to make payments on their original fees, because we want people to be responsible and to pay their debt. Therefore, I thought it was a win-win so we would recoup some of that money. That individual would then be able to drive back and forth to work, school, etcetera. That was my only goal. To let those with minimal driving while suspended charges—no other court issues, no DUIs, any of that. It would be monitored by the Department of Revenue Driver Solution. There’s an application online. They look. You have to qualify and be eligible and they monitor it and they work together with the State Department of Revenue as well as your local drivers office.”

This was in response to concerns from General Counselor at the League of Kansas Municipalities John Goodyear. His concerns are in regard to the language where it states that driving privileges are revoked solely for the purpose that they failed to pay and failed to appear. The concern was that it is incredibly rare to have a license revoked solely for that offense, suggesting to list some of the minor underlying offenses that prevent individuals from getting back on the road.

Other supporters of the bill were also able to clear up these concerns.

As the day continued, people whose lives have been upended by current Kansas legislation on the issue of driver’s license suspensions and revocations were able to tell their stories.

The next committee meeting on restricted driving privileges will be held on October 10.

On September 16, a Driver’s License Suspension and Revocation Workshop sponsored by Racial Profiling Advisory Board will be held where attendees will receive free advice from attorneys regarding the issue of suspended licenses. The event will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Atwater Center, 2755 E 19th Street N., Wichita, Kansas.

To watch the full hearing, click here.