An alternative to the state’s despised “driver responsibility program,” a plan that would essentially spread the fiscal pain to everyone who gets a traffic ticket in Texas, is now in the Senate’s hands.

The House on Saturday passed House Bill 2068 on a 133-4 vote, and its sponsor, state Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, said he would be talking Monday to potential Senate champions of the bill. Phillips said the candidates for carrying SB 2068 in the upper chamber include Senate Transportation Committee chairman Robert Nichols, a Jacksonville Republican, and Sen. Boris Miles, D-Houston.

“We’re working with his office,” Phillips said of Miles. “He’s very eager to try to solve the dilemma that we’re in…I have confidence that there’s a real will in both chambers to try to get this resolved, so that makes me more hopeful.”

Read the rest of the story online at the Austin American-Statesman.