And the topic has drawn attention, and action, from both outgoing Racine Municipal Judge Rebecca Mason and members of the City Council.

A large-scale problem

Nearly 60 percent (approximately 250,000 out of 420,000) of the licenses that were suspended in Wisconsin in 2013 were for failure to pay fines, while only about 170,000 were suspended for all other reasons combined — like a drunken driving conviction or accumulating too many demerit points — according to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Employment and Training Institute.

“It is difficult for a community to thrive if it has a high rate of suspended licenses. People need to be able to drive to work and to school,” Mason said in an email. “For these reasons, I have worked to greatly reduce the number of driver’s licenses that the Racine Municipal Court suspends.”

In some states, these suspensions can’t happen at all.

In seven states, licenses can’t be suspended for nonpayment of fines. This includes in Illinois — although Chicago has a local law that allows licenses to be suspended if someone has 10 or more unpaid parking tickets.