Wow! That's quite a program! I seem to recall long ago that the insurance companies used to use some kind of point system to boost your insurance rates. Maybe they still do. But I've never heard of a state doing so. And those aren't minor fees, either.srothstein wrote:sjfcontrol wrote:Steve -- As someone who's never been involved with Texas traffic tickets, can you tell us what this is?srothstein wrote:The state admitted, to my way of thinking, that it sees all tickets as revenue generation when it passed the surcharge bill for points. No one made any bones about it being a fund raising bill at the time.
I think it was four years ago. The state passed a law that assesses a surcharge on your driver's license for certain violations o combination of violations. This is done as a civil cost raising the DL cost so that it does not come under the limit on fines or extra punishment. Anyway, for each moving violation you get two points, but some (excessive speed - more than 15 over I think - is the one I remember) are three points. Points stay on license for three years. If you get six points, you have to pay $100 (I think) per year for three years. Some specific violations (no dl, no insurance, DWI, driving on a suspended license are examples) have their own surcharges instead of points. The surcharges go up to $2500 per year I think for the DWI.
Refusal to pay the surcharge means your license gets suspended.
As you can imagine, the program is under review now. Not many people paid the surcharges and most just kept driving on a suspended license.
