Despite the $15 million cost, the City Council on Wednesday approved Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to cut Chicago scofflaws some slack — by reducing fines, expanding payments plans and stopping drivers’ license suspensions for non-moving violations.
The unanimous vote without a word of debate allowed Lightfoot to begin to deliver on a pivotal campaign promise.
“This is a very important day for our residents. ... It’s the first in a series of steps we’ll be taking to give people relief from the burden of fines and fees,” the mayor said from the rostrum after the vote.
The mayor noted that Cook County has the highest number of Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings in the country “and a huge percentage of those filings” stem from debt owed to the city.
“We are working hard to make sure that we relieve that burden, we give people their cars back and we give them an opportunity to participate in the economy.”
During the campaign, Lightfoot promised to raise the boot threshold, stop booting for non-moving violations and eliminate a hefty chunk of red light cameras at 149 intersections if those cameras were used for revenue — not safety.
She even proposed abolishing city stickers that are the source of so many compliance tickets and replacing the $128 million in annual revenue used to repair and maintain Chicago streets with higher fees on ride-hailing vehicles.
Compared to those lofty promises, the solutions the mayor delivered Wednesday in a unanimous vote without a word of debate may seem somewhat timid. But they still add $15 million to the city’s $838 million shortfall.
Those losses include:
• $7.5 million by ending the practice of doubling city sticker tickets from $200 to $400 after late fees. Instead, sticker scofflaws would be hit with $250 fines that include late fees. The city will also stop the process of issuing same-day or consecutive day tickets for compliance violations. Motorists ticketed for having an expired or missing city sticker or driving with an expired license plate will have 24-hours to remedy the violation before they can be hit again.
• $4.2 million by ending automatic driver’s license suspensions for non-moving violations, such as parking tickets, city sticker violations and driving with an expired license plate. Currently, more than 69,000 drivers licenses are in “suspension status” for non-payment of fines and fees, officials said. Roughly 57,000 will be eligible for re-instatement.
• $3.3 million by offering debt relief billed by the mayor’s office as the “most accessible payment plans” in the nation. The mayor’s plan calls for creating a six-month, universal payment plan that includes down payments as low as $35. Motorists in financial distress could get more time to pay. Scofflaws whose vehicles are booted would be able to request a 24-hour extension to pay their fines in full or get on a payment plan.
Beginning Nov. 15, the city will also reinstate the 15-day grace period to renew city stickers without a ticket and a 30-day grace period to purchase stickers without penalty.
Although city revenues will take a $15 million hit next year, top mayoral aides hope the mayor’s plan will become “revenue-neutral” as more and more motorists get involved in payment plans they can afford.
That could chip away at an outstanding ticket debt that now stands at $1.3 billion. Some aldermen want the city to wipe that debt off the books.
Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11th) worries the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction.
“If somebody had a ticket and they get another ticket, they can just add that to the payment plan. ... At some point, there’s a little tough love [needed]. We’ve got to stop. ... It’s not a cycle of debt. It’s a chronic violation of the law. ... We’re enabling them,” Thompson said.
“I understand there’s a hardship of some folks in paying for it. But residents of my community have a hardship of paying an increased property tax and increased fees and fines. They abide by the law and they pay their debts. ... We have to look at those that are obeying the law and paying their debts and not burden them with this additional cost because we have somebody who is a re-occurring violator.”
West Side Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) argued drivers’ license suspensions should remain in the city’s arsenal.
“The fact that you totally take that off the table — for those who are law-abiding — it’s unfair to them,” Ervin said. “I understand the goal that the mayor has. … But, at some point, it may be necessary.”
Ald. George Cardenas (12th) said he, too, is “uncomfortable” signing off on a plan to go easier without “some limit” on the amount of debt that will be tolerated.
“This city has to run. This city needs the revenue,” he said.
Ald. Michael Scott Jr. (24th) countered that the city’s decision to bring the sledgehammer down on scofflaws is having a disproportionate impact on black and Hispanic motorists.
“Hopefully, it won’t be a revenue-neutral thing. This will be a revenue generator because people don’t want to walk around with tickets on their back and have this debt as a noose around their neck. They want to pay this debt,” Scott said.
Lightfoot has called the plan a “first but important step to unwinding the city’s addiction to fines and fees on the backs of low-income people.”
In 2017, fines and penalties — ranging from parking, red-light and speed camera tickets to building code violations — raked in $344.9 million. That’s 9.4 percent of all city revenue. Vehicle tickets alone now rake in more than $260 million.
A habit like that can’t be broken overnight, the mayor has said.
“Every time you do reform, there’s somebody who says it’s not enough,” Lightfoot said the day she unveiled the plan.
“We wanted to make sure that we took the first steps to give people hope. Getting people their drivers’ licenses back and ending the practice of suspending them merely on the basis of non-driving violations is going to be significant.”
