SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember Steve Fox (D-Palmdale) today announced that his Traffic Ticket Amnesty Legislation, Assembly Bill (AB) 2085, received bipartisan support and was passed by a margin of 13-2 by the Assembly Transportation Committee.
The bill now will move to the Assembly Floor.
“The recession is still affecting too many people,” said Fox. “When people had to choose between feeding their children and paying a traffic ticket, they sometimes choose to do the wrong thing for the right reasons.”
The Traffic Ticket Amnesty Bill would create a one year amnesty period beginning January 1, 2016. Under this program, people would be able to pay 50% of their fine for misdemeanor violations and no additional criminal charges would be brought against people for delinquent fines.
When a similar program was implemented between January 1, 2012 and June 30, 2012, courts were able to resolve 42,245 delinquent cases, collect $14.9 million in gross revenue and reduce outstanding statewide debt by $29 million.
The longer amnesty period created by AB 2085 could allow courts and counties to decrease a greater amount of outstanding debt and eliminate more backlogged debt cases.
“The snowballing effect of delaying payment of a ticket makes the situation untenable for many,” said Fox. “This bill will help counties and those individuals who want to meet their obligations.”
More information is available at www.asmdc.org/fox.
(Information via press release from the office of Assemblymember Steve Fox .)
Voice of Reason says
It would be great if the bill would stop the out of control assessments that are added on the the initial fine. Assessments should only be added by the elected officials not overpaid bureaucrats. Please stop the taxation without representation.
Whateva says
Some people made the decision to be responsible and pay their fines in the first place, even if it was a hardship. This is hardly equitable treatment, despite the justifications.