Syracuse will be held up as an example today of why New York and other states should stop suspending driver’s licenses for people who have unpaid traffic tickets.

Assemblywoman Pam Hunter and a national advocacy group plan to launch a push to change laws they say unfairly punish poor people by taking away driving privileges for violations as minor as one unpaid traffic ticket.

Hunter, D-Syracuse, has introduced a bill that would require courts in New York to offer income-based monthly payment plans at no extra charge for traffic tickets, fees and surcharges.

Drivers fined for traffic violations would be allowed to pay monthly installments of no more than 2% of their net monthly income or $10 per month, whichever is greater. The bill would also allow judges to reduce or waive the mandatory surcharges and fees.

Hunter says the change is needed to reform a system that disproportionately punishes poor people who can’t afford fines and surcharges. Those with suspended licenses often have no other way to commute to work, affecting their ability to repay the debt.

The problem is particularly troubling in Syracuse, a city with the nation’s highest rate of concentrated poverty among blacks and Hispanics, Hunter said.

The rate of driver’s with suspended licenses for unpaid traffic tickets in one poor neighborhood in Syracuse is more than twice the statewide average, according to the Driven by Justice Coalition, a coalition of criminal justice advocates.

In the 13205 ZIP code that includes Syracuse’s South Side, the license suspension rate was 104 per 1,000 people of driving age (or more than 1 in 10) compared to the statewide rate of 43 per 1,000 New Yorkers, according to a study by the coalition.

“In Syracuse, some of the most startling rates are those showing suspension cases that were not resolved,” said Katie Adamides, New York director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center, which supports Hunter’s bill.

For example, in the 13120 ZIP code that includes Nedrow and the Onondaga Nation, 71.3% of license suspensions in 2016 lasted a year or more, compared to less than 50% of all suspensions statewide, the study found.

“That tells you people are trapped in this cycle of punishment and poverty, and it’s happening in Syracuse in an extreme way,” Adamides told Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard.

In 2016 alone, New York issued 679,838 driver’s license suspensions due to unpaid traffic debts, the study found. From January 2016 to April 2018, the state issued 1.7 million suspensions.

The suspension rate in New York’s 10 poorest zip codes was nearly nine times higher than the rate in the 10 wealthiest zip codes, according to the study.

Hunter said her bill, which has 23 Assembly co-sponsors, would not apply to those whose licenses were suspended because of criminal charges.

“We’re not talking about DWIs here,” Hunter said. “We’re not talking vehicular homicide. We’re talking about traffic tickets.”

Five states -- Mississippi, Idaho, California, Virginia and Montana – and the District of Columbia have passed similar laws in recent years, Hunter said, that led to more people making payments.

“This is not a money-making scheme, but for places that have passed this law they have all seen an increase in revenue,” Hunter said.

Hunter said she is looking forward to debate on her bill in the Assembly in the new legislative session that begins in January.

A companion bill sponsored by state Sen. Timothy M. Kennedy, D-Buffalo, passed the full Senate on June 19 by a vote of 41-21.

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