Several counties in Central Florida are making it easier for people to get their driver's license reinstated if it was suspended because of overdue traffic fines or court fees.
The clerks of court in Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola and Volusia counties are offering that program this week, which is called Operation Green Light.
It gives people with overdue traffic tickets or court fees a chance to pay up -- or start a payment plan -- and lift the suspension on their driver's license without some of the additional costs, like collection fees.
Driver's license suspensions enforce the payments that help fund the clerk's offices, but they affect the driving privileges of hundreds of thousands of Floridians.
Tachana Joseph-Marc with the Florida Policy Institute says there are economic impacts. It's hard to get a job without a valid license.
"The clerks," she said, "should be able to have a stable source of funding without the harmful effects of driver's license suspensions on the average Floridian."
Proposed legislation would end suspended licenses for unpaid traffic tickets. But in recent years, similar bills have failed.
