Snyder renews law risking license with 3 unpaid parking tickets
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Rick Snyder has signed legislation keeping intact a law that puts people’s driver’s license at risk if they have three unpaid parking tickets.
Michigan in 2012 enacted a law dropping the threshold from six unpaid tickets to three. The limit was due to rise to six again on Jan. 1.
The law lets courts notify people who fail to answer three parking violation notices that if they do not appear within 10 days, the secretary of state will be informed. The secretary of state then cannot issue or renew their driver’s license until the citations have been resolved.
Cities including Detroit and Grand Rapids say the policy has helped them collect parking fines.
Snyder signed the bill Thursday.
Judge won’t ease halt on license suspensions for poor
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A judge won’t freeze an order that stops Michigan officials from suspending the driver’s licenses of people who can’t afford traffic fines.
Federal Judge Linda Parker turned aside aggressive arguments by the secretary of state’s office, which describes her injunction from last week as a “monkey wrench thrown into an enormous machine running at full speed.”
Parker says there’s a strong likelihood that the due process rights of poor people are being violated when their licenses are suspended for failure to pay traffic fines. But the judge also emphasized Thursday that she’s not ordering the state to restore anyone’s license at this point.
Parker says the secretary of state must guarantee that people have notice of an ability-to-pay hearing before a suspension.
Snyder signs bills in wake of unemployment fraud mistakes
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Rick Snyder has signed into law changes in how the state flags fraud in the unemployment benefits system in the wake of thousands of people being falsely accused.
The laws enacted Thursday reduce fraud penalties, improve identity theft protections and expand access to an advocacy group for claimants and employers accused of fraud.
Snyder, whose administration has faced criticism over the problems, says the bills will “modernize” the Unemployment Insurance Agency. He adds the new system will be fairer to those applying for benefits and protect people’s personal information.
The Snyder administration also is looking to create a state fund to compensate people who were falsely accused. It would help claimants who were refunded penalties and interest but have faced other financial hardships because of the fiasco.
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