Kansas governor Laura Kelly was in Wichita on Friday for a ceremonial signing of a bill to make reforms in regulations dealing with suspended drivers licenses.
The bill is intended to help people with financial hardships in getting back on the road legally. The governor said there are around 205,000 Kansans who have suspended licenses, and 60 percent of them are related to issues in paying fines and court fees. She said the bill ensures that no Kansan is denied the ability to drive to school or to work because of their inability to pay a fine.
Senate Bill 127 modifies the eligibility requirements for restricted driving privileges, increases the age for eligibility to renew drivers’ licenses online to 65, allows drivers’ license renewal notices to be sent electronically, authorizes a waiver of traffic fines for manifest hardship situations and excludes the additional 90-day wait period for driver’s license suspension for certain offenses.
Governor Kelly said she has been talking with legislative leaders about more common-sense legislation to fix the criminal justice system. She said the crime that is being committed in many cases is the crime of poverty. She said the goal is to “ensure that just because you’re poor doesn’t mean you spend endless numbers of days in jail waiting for the judge, you don’t spend endless days off of work because you can’t afford to pay the fine.”
The signing ceremony was attended by legislative and community leaders, including State Senator Oletha Faust-Goudeau, State Representative Gail Finney and Sedgwick County Commissioner Jim Howell, who advocated for the Senate bill.
