LANSING, MI — Some 168,000 Michigan motorists with delinquent "driver responsibility fees" will receive good news in the mail this month.
The Michigan Treasury is sending out letters to residents who qualify for a new program allowing them to perform 10 hours of community service in lieu of paying off certain responsibility fees.
The program, created under a new law signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in September, applies to motorists who were cited for driving without a valid license or proof of insurance and were assessed a two-year fee on top of a traditional traffic ticket.
The program will provide “a benefit to the individual and the community,” according to Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, who announced the program numbers in a joint press release with Treasurer Kevin Clinton.
It will take the Treasury several weeks to mail all 168,000 letters, according to the release, and the state is asking motorists to hold off on calling the department until their letters arrive.
Driver responsibility fees were established in 2003 to help balance the state budget, but critics would later call them a "cash grab" for the state and a "death penalty" for drivers struggling to pay fees and court costs while still needing to drive to work.
The driver responsibility fees associated with the new community service program were already eliminated in 2012, and all others are scheduled to be phased out by 2019 under a separate law signed in June.
Jonathan Oosting is a Capitol reporter for MLive Media Group. Email him, find him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.