Illinois will no longer suspend the licenses of drivers who fail to pay parking tickets and other fines beginning July 1 under a measure Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law Friday.
The secretary of state’s office also will automatically reinstate the driving privileges of roughly 55,000 people who’ve had their licenses suspended over unpaid fines and fees unrelated to moving violations.
“Right now, tens of thousands of Illinoisans lose their licenses each year for reasons that have nothing to do with their ability to drive,” Pritzker said at a bill-signing event in Chicago’s Homan Square neighborhood.
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The suspensions disproportionately affect low-income drivers who need their cars to get to work and earn the money to pay their fines, the governor said.
“If you’re living below or near the poverty line and you’re looking at a choice between your unpaid parking tickets or your kid’s medicine or your family’s next meal, well, that’s no choice at all,” he said.
While his choice wasn’t quite that stark, Rodney Shelton said he nearly lost his job as a Chicago firefighter when his license was suspended in April 2015 over $18,000 unpaid parking tickets. Shelton, who spoke at the bill signing, said he racked up 77 tickets in 90 days on a car he’d parked on a private lot.
He ended up filing for bankruptcy, which helped him retain his license and his job as a firefighter, which pays $99,324 annually, according to city records. He also began driving for Uber to help pay down his debts, he said.
“This is a domino effect; it affects my family at home,” said Shelton, who choked up when talking about the impact of drivers license suspension in neighborhoods like West Garfield Park, where he grew up and works.
“Most people are not fortunate,” he said.
The legislation was sponsored by state Rep. Carol Ammons of Urbana and Sen. Omar Aquino of Chicago, both Democrats, and approved with bipartisan support in the House and Senate.
Both Ammons and Aquino credited an investigation from ProPublica Illinois and WBEZ on the disproportionate impact of license suspensions on drivers in low-income, predominantly black neighborhoods in the city and suburbs.
The change to the state law comes after the City Council voted in September to end the practice of seeking license suspensions over unpaid tickets.
“Suspending someone’s license really suspends their entire life,” Ammons said.
