Lightfoot defends methodical approach to ending city’s ‘addiction’ to fines and fees

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday made no apologies for her methodical approach to an intractable problem: Chicago’s “addiction” to balancing its budget on the backs of those who can least afford it.

Lightfoot campaigned on a promise to bring equity to an overly punitive ticketing, towing and booting policy that has unfairly targeted minorities and forced thousands into bankruptcy.

She 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 placed there to raise revenue — not increase safety.

She even promised to abolish city stickers that are the source of so many compliance tickets and replace them with higher fees on ride-hailing vehicles.

Compared to those lofty promises, the solutions Lightfoot is delivering seem somewhat timid. She’s ending driver’s license suspensions for non-moving violations, reducing exorbitant city sticker penalties, creating a six-month, universal payment plan and empowering booted scofflaws to request a 24-hour extension to pay their fines in full or get on a payment plan.

The brick on driver’s license suspensions can only be imposed by a change in state law, which has the mayor’s backing. But, the city will immediately stop making those referrals to the Illinois Secretary of State.

On Tuesday, Lightfoot defended that go-slow approach by outlining the extent of what she calls Chicago’s “addiction” to fines and fees.

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 said. Not when the new mayor also faces a budget shortfall “north of $700 million” and is staring down the barrel of a $1 billion spike in pension payments.

“Every time you do reform, there’s somebody who says it’s not enough. ... This is a first, but important, step to unwinding the city’s addiction to fines and fees on the backs of low-income people. But, there will be more to come for sure,” Lightfoot said.

“We want to make sure that we start the process of untangling this big, massive problem. And it is substantial. It’s not gonna be easy to fix overnight. 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.”

Last year, the city sold 1.23 million city stickers and generated $128 million for the repair and maintenance of city streets. Late fees and penalties added another $6.9 million, down from $9.2 million in 2016.

What about Lightfoot’s bold pre-election promise to abolish the city stickers altogether? Or her pledge to revise what she has called “draconian anti-scofflaw laws” that prohibit those with outstanding city debts from driving taxicabs or ride-hailing vehicles?

“We’re gonna be working on larger issues regarding ride-share. That’ll be part of it as well,” she said.

Asked how she will measure the success of Round One of her fine and fee reforms, Lightfoot pointed to the 69,000 motorists who have suspended drivers’s license because of referrals from Chicago.

“Getting their drivers’ licenses back quickly is gonna be one really important metric. Also, looking at the number of people who go on a payment plan quickly,” the mayor said.

The “price of entry” and the monthly payments on the city’s existing scofflaw payment plans are so high, motorists “end up dropping off after three months,” Lightfoot noted.

“We’re gonna be looking at what the numbers look like in those payment plans to see if what we’ve proposed is actually working. And if we need to make adjustments, we will.”