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Nearly one point four million Floridians had their drivers license suspended last year. The vast majority of the suspensions were for failing to pay a fine, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, lawmakers say the system creates a vicious cycle from which some people never recover.

Every day, on just about every police blotter in Florida, someone is charged with driving without a valid license.

Maureen Johnson works for the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles ans was asked to testify before the Senate Transportation Committee.  “A suspension fee would be sixty dollars to reinstate” she told Senators.

The licenses of more than one million Floridians were suspended last year simply for not paying a fine. More than three hundred thousand of those people still haven’t paid and they remain unable to legally drive. Leon County Judge Gus Aikens calls it a vicious cycle.

“You couldn’t pay the cost and fines. There is no business purpose only license or employment purpose only license for people who fail to pay.So they are just locked out in terms of their ability to drive” says Judge Aikens.

By the time someone caught driving on a suspended  license gets through the court process, they owe 300 dollars or more in court fees. Add that to a hundred or so that it will also cost them to get their drivers license back.

Federal law requires a license’s to be suspended for drug convictions and for failing to pay child support. Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) is the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee.

“How in the world are these people supposed to pay child support if they can’t get to work? And why are we tacking on more and more fees?” says Brandes.

The Senate Transportation Committee has made the fines and resulting suspensions its number one topic for the coming legislative session.

“It just makes it harder for them to pay off their child support and to make good on their obligations” Brandes told reporters.

One of the problems facing lawmakers is that the ticket fines go directly to court funding.

n some areas of the state, people who can’t pay their traffic tickets and fines are allowed to substitute community service hours, but policies vary from county to county.