March 14, 2024

Dear Senator Stewart-Cousins, Senator Ortt, Assembly Person Peoples-Stokes and Assembly Person Barclay, we are writing to express our support for the End Predatory Court Fees Act (S.313/A.4183) and respectfully request that it be included in the New York State budget to provide relief for thousands of New Yorkers saddled with court fines and fees.

CEO Action for Racial Equity (CEOARE) is a Fellowship of over 100 signatory organizations that mobilizes a community of business leaders with diverse expertise across multiple industries and geographies to advance public policy in four key areas — healthcare, education, economic empowerment and public safety. Its mission is to identify, develop and promote scalable and sustainable public policies and corporate engagement strategies that will address systemic racism, social injustice and improve societal well-being.

The Act aligns with our mission and supports one of our policy solutions: Decriminalizing Poverty. For CEOARE, this means confronting the aspects of our justice system that create additional consequences for low-income and working-class communities, purely because they lack the means to afford judicial costs.

As we identify policies that help address the decriminalization of poverty, we are guided by a set of bipartisan principles:

• the inability to pay fines and fees should never be the reason for added punishment,
• the justice system should not disproportionately harm the poor, and
• all individuals deserve to be treated justly, without bias or prejudice by our legal and law enforcement systems.

The End Predatory Court Fees Act (S.313/A.4183) aims to eliminate New York’s court fees imposed on every conviction, including traffic tickets and minor infractions. These fees, such as the mandatory surcharge, often result in a cycle of debt that is not surprising given that 60% of New Yorkers do not have any discretionary income (see attached CEOARE analysis – “Fines and Fees: Navigating Economic Inequity in New York City’s Justice System”). These fees have a disparate impact on lower income residents, and the cycle of debt often results in a need to work many more hours to pay the fines compared to higher income earners (see attached analysis).

The New York Legislature’s elimination of parole supervision fees in the 2022 budget highlights the understanding and commitment to this cause. We urge you to continue this commitment by including the End Predatory Court Fees Act in this year’s budget.

Fines and fees, in many cases, are not an efficient source of government revenue and collection practices can be costly. In New York, a 2023 analysis of Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) data by the NYCLU showed that collection rates for the most common types of court fees are between 27% and 58% depending on the category, and result in less than $40 million in annual revenue – only 0.001% of the state’s tax revenues.¹ These low collection levels suggest that fees are not a dependable revenue source and, in many cases, can cost more to collect than the fines and fees themselves.

• In addition, eliminating court fees, like those addressed in the End Predatory Court Fees Act, likely would save the state money as well as impact the cycle of poverty for many New Yorkers. When people who owe court fees are already struggling financially, they often must choose between basic needs like food, rent, childcare, or paying court debt. This may cause more reliance on government-funded assistance programs, which grows overall government costs.

As business leaders, we have seen how our businesses prosper when communities thrive. But most importantly, as business leaders, we have a responsibility to our employees and customers to help make sure that they live and work in safe, strong, and healthy communities. CEO Action for Racial Equity is committed to working with lawmakers across the aisle to enact policies that bring equity to our justice system. Thank you for your leadership and continued advancement of these reforms.

Sincerely,
CEO Action for Racial Equity

Citations

¹ NYCLU, “Following the Money: How New York Tries, and Ultimately Fails, to Extract Revenue from Indigent Criminal Defendants”.