Law changes for disabled parking privileges
Changes to special parking privilege laws for persons with disabilities take effect July 1, 2015. These law changes are an attempt to reduce the number of people abusing disabled parking privileges in our state.
The changes to the laws are mainly the result of recommendations by a work group that was formed to develop a plan to eliminate abuse of the program. Participants included Department of Licensing, Department of Health, Governor's disabled citizen advocacy groups and local governments. The work group also gathered and considered input from the public.
Changes include:
- Requiring a written prescription from a health care provider to obtain disabled parking privileges.
- Extending temporary parking placards from up to 6 months to up to 12 months.
- Requiring a new application for every renewal.
- Inclusion of a new fraud warning on the application to remind applicants and healthcare providers it is a gross misdemeanor if they knowingly provide false information.
- Upgrading the penalty of illegally obtaining a disabled parking placard, license plate, tab, or identification card from a traffic infraction to a misdemeanor