The B-M-V wants to suspend fewer licenses.

Legislators approved an amnesty program last year to cut people’s reinstatement fees in half. Governor Holcomb is backing a bill to revive that program for another year, and make the B-M-V slower to suspend licenses in the first place.

Chris Daniels with the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council says nearly half-a-million Hoosiers have had their licenses suspended — many of them more than once. More than 70-percent of those aren’t for reckless driving, but for not showing up in court, not having insurance, or not paying reinstatement fees after a suspension.

Daniels says that creates a catch-22 where people who don’t have the money to get their license back just keep driving, rack up additional suspensions and fees, and dig a financial hole they can’t get out of.

The House has already voted 93-3 for a bill giving you a six-month grace period to get insurance and a job, and dropping the suspension if you do. The bill also creates a three-year grace period for nonviolent offenders freshly released from prison, as long as they get a job or are enrolled in a training program.

Ogden Dunes Senator Karen Tallian (D) says northwest Indiana unions have told her in the past that license suspensions are the single biggest obstacle to getting people into apprenticeship programs.

The bill has received the first of two required Senate committee approvals before going to the full Senate.