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Help End Driver’s License Suspensions for Nonmoving Violations by Supporting the License to Work Act (SB 1786)

Elizabeth Monkus is a Staff Attorney and the Development and Program Manager for Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice. If you have questions about the License to Work Act, you can email her at emonkus@chicagoappleseed.org. 

Chicago Appleseed is a member of the Transit Table, a coalition led by the Chicago Jobs Council which includes Heartland Alliance, the ACLU of Illinois, COFI, the Chicago Urban League, Revolution Workshop, and the Woodstock Institute.

We have made significant progress with the License to Work Act (SB 1786; Aquino/Ammons) and are hoping to see it pass in the veto session this fall. The bill would end the practice of suspending driver’s licenses for failure to pay tickets for nonmoving violations (such as parking tickets). Over 50,000 Illinois drivers have their licenses suspended each year as a penalty for failing to pay nonmoving violation tickets.

The bill passed the Senate on March 28, 2019, but stalled over some late opposition from Chicago’s new mayor. After proposing her own City Ordinance to address the issue, Mayor Lori Lightfoot came out in support of passing the bill in the upcoming fall veto session and was joined by City Clerk Anna Valencia in that support. Last week, Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White joined the calls to pass the bill during the veto session.

A report by Chicago’s Woodstock Institute outlines how low-income and minority communities are disproportionately impacted by ticketing for parking or sticker violations. These communities, therefore, have higher rates of license suspension resulting from nonmoving expenses. Stripping people of their licenses causes job loss while simultaneously creating a barrier to employment. A New Jersey study found that 42% of individuals lost their jobs following the suspension of their driver’s licenses.

The License to Work Act eliminates driver’s license suspension as a penalty for most non-driving violations, including: (1) failure to pay parking, compliance, or tollway tickets, fines, or fees; (2) being judged to be a “truant minor;” (3) criminal trespass to a vehicle, and a handful of other non-driving violations. It also allows an individual whose license was suspended under any of these provisions to have their license reinstated.

Mayor Lightfoot’s proposed ticket-debt relief plan would reinstate the 15-day grace period to renew vehicle stickers and cap the fine for not renewing at $200. It ends “same-day or consecutive day ticketing” for violators. Furthermore, it creates a six-month, universal payment plan with lower down payments and, for motorists in financial distress, more time to pay. Persons whose vehicles are booted may request a 24-hour extension to pay their fines in full or get on a payment plan under the Mayor’s proposal.

Most importantly, the proposal ends driver’s license suspensions for nonmoving violations.

Because state law allows it, previous mayors have fought to keep that power as a way to trim city debt. Lightfoot’s City Hall no longer will forward the names of motorists to the Illinois Secretary of State’s office for driver’s license suspension—provided their offenses are confined to non-payments for standing, parking, and compliance violations.

You can help get the License to Work Act passed by making sure that your Senator and Representative are already sponsors and calling your State Congressional Representatives in support of the bill.

On your call, identify yourself as a voter in the Member’s district and say you support passage of SB 1786 because license suspensions should be for dangerous driving, not debt. Please thank your Member if they are a sponsor of the bill and ask that they support calling the bill during the veto session. If your Member is not already a sponsor, please ask them to support the bill. You can access the call tool at the License2Work coalition webpage.

The veto session will run October 28-30 and November 12-14.