Proposal introduced to extend amnesty program on court fines to 2024

SACRAMENTO — A state lawmaker introduced a bill to extend an amnesty program for fines and fees by another six years.

AB 2260, authored by Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, sets the stage for another potential standoff between the Legislature and Judicial Council over outstanding court-ordered debt.

“People who struggle to pay rent or put food on the table cannot afford these traffic tickets,” Ting said in an emailed statement. “Their problem worsens as late fees compound.”

“Courts cannot rely on taxing poor people for their funding,” he added.

Ting’s bill would require counties to implement local versions of an amnesty program that ran for 18 months from 2015 to 2017. It would apply only to tickets issued before April 2017, but would run for the entirety of 2019 through 2024. Those with eligible debts could get a 50 percent reduction, while those on public assistance see an 80 percent drop.

Spokespeople for the courts, meanwhile, have argued that the Legislature has largely created the problem by passing add-ons that can cause a traffic infraction to balloon into a huge debt.

“The Judicial Council has taken a number of steps over the past three years to increase fairness to defendants in traffic court, including implementation of the amnesty program that just concluded last year which restore drivers’ licenses to more than 246,000 individuals with unpaid traffic tickets,” said San Diego Superior Court Judge Kenneth K. So, chair of the Judicial Council’s legislative committee.

So added that the agency is evaluating AB 2260 and does not yet have a position.

The Judicial Council has pointed out that amnesty programs also have led to reduced revenue for the courts.

A report issued by the Judicial Council in August found the 2015-17 amnesty resolved 255,306 cases and collected a net of $31.6 million after expenses. But that the amnesty also “coincided” with a $131.8 million drop in the collections of fines and fee revenue going to courts.

The most recent amnesty followed a six-month program that ran from 2011 to 2012. The courts have repeatedly argued that amnesty programs work best when they are rare and short in duration.

A fact sheet provided by Ting pointed to a 2017 report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office. It estimates there is $12.3 billion in uncollected court debt, much of it dating to the financial crisis and held by people who can’t afford to pay.

The sheet also noted two court debt relief bills that stalled in the Assembly Appropriations Committee last year. Committee analyses noted potential costs in the millions for each bill.

Ting’s AB 412 would have vacated fines for charges that were dropped if a defendant could show good cause, such as an “inability to pay.”

SB 185 by Sen. Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, would mandate reduced fines and payment plans for indigent defendants. Hertzberg’s office said SB 185 is alive and eligible to move forward this year.

Last June, Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 103, a public safety omnibus bill that included a provision barring courts and the DMV from suspending someone’s license for not paying a traffic fine or fee. According to an internal estimate from the Judicial Council, that could reduce collections of fines and fees by $40 million to $100 million annually.

One older solution may be gaining currency. An editorial in the New York Times on Thursday urged lawmakers and courts to consider day fines, based on the amount an offender makes in a given day. The use of day fines has resulted in some eye-popping traffic tickets — most notably the $1 million speeding fine given to a wealthy Swede in 2010.

In 1991, the Legislature directed the Judicial Council to conduct a pilot project to evaluate day fines, but the concept was eventually dropped.