Colorado Senate Bill 23-028 was initially intended to correct an issue with a previous bill from 2021. Now, it’s under scrutiny for potentially charging just $100 total for driving a semi-truck in the state without a license. Dig a little deeper though and there’s a potential upside worth consideration.
For about two years, those ticketed for driving a semi without a license in Colorado weren’t punishable under state law. That’s because while the act is illegal, a bill from 2021 made it so that it was no longer a misdemeanor but instead a traffic infraction. At the same time, lawmakers failed to change the fine schedule.
For judges, that’s an issue. “It makes it unenforceable because the judges are really bound by law to dismiss those citations. That’s where we can come in on the back end to do the inspections and compliance reviews to at least hold them accountable in some sense,” said Major JP Burt of the Colorado State Patrol to 9News.
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The new bill is still up for debate but the House and Senate see things quite differently. The former wants to clarify that the penalty should now be a $100 fine and a $15 surcharge which would be one of the most lenient in the country.
The latter wants to make it a misdemeanor again. Technically, either clarification would make it possible for judges to at least enforce some sort of penalty for driving without a license.
Should the House and Senate come to an agreement in the middle it could be harsher still. The Senate specifically says that while a first violation would constitute a misdemeanor a second or subsequent offense would constitute a class 5 felony. The bill is still under consideration on both floors.
Until something is finalized, Burt says that his troopers will continue to mitigate the threat the only way they can, through inspections and compliance reviews.