DRIVER TRAINING
House Bill 5159
Sponsor: Rep. David Woodward
Committee: Transportation
Complete to 10-12-01
A SUMMARY OF HOUSE BILL 5159 AS INTRODUCED 10-9-01
House Bill 5159 would amend the Michigan Vehicle Code to eliminate the match of the pro rata amount from the state driver education fund by local school districts.
Currently under the law, the secretary of state deposits the revenue raised from the sale of drivers licenses (including the revenue from all $12 operators' licenses and all $20 chauffeurs' licenses) into the state treasury, and then refunds out of the fees collected a proportion of each license's costs to each county or municipality that acts as an examining officer or examining bureau. In addition, the state treasurer deposits the sum of $4 from the sale of most licenses into a Driver Education Fund. (Four dollars is earmarked on the sale of each original license, each renewal operator's license, each original chauffeur's license, and each renewal chauffeur's license, but only $2 is earmarked from the sale of each two-year operator's or two-year chauffeur's license.) From the money credited to the Driver Education Fund, the legislature then appropriates money to the Department of Education, which uses the money for a driver education program, and for distribution to local school districts to fund their driver education programs. Funds are distributed to districts on a pro rata basis, in an amount equal to the number of students who have completed segment 1 of an approved driver education course through the local public school district. Beginning April 1, 1998, the law has required that a local school district match that pro rata amount for each student, providing each student in an approved driver education course with a certificate the student to be used toward payment of any fee charged for an approved driver education course that is offered by a local school district, or a licensed driver training school.
Under House Bill 5159 the local school district pro rata match would be eliminated. However, the local school district would continue to provide each student with a certificate (in a form approved by the Department of Education) that represented the pro rata amount distributed by the Department of Education from the Driver Education Fund.
MCL 257.811
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This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan House staff for use by House members in their deliberations, and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.