Congratulations to the Illinois Fines & Fees Coalition and its partners for the passage of SB108, the Traffic Fee Waiver Sunset Elimination bill! SB108 makes the current Cook County specific, partial traffic fee waiver program, permanent. The bill now moves to Governor Pritzker for signing. 

Established as a pilot in the 2018 Criminal & Traffic Assessments Act (CTAA), the Cook County traffic case assessment waiver was intended to sunset July 1, 2025, after an initial extension. This bill makes the fee waiver permanent and furthers the intent of the original CTAA. 

Assessments and fees are not fines or restitution; they are costs and other charges assessed to defendants in order to shift the responsibility for paying for courts onto communities. Modeled on the civil court fee waiver in Illinois, the CTAA was a critical step toward changing how we think about funding our courts and toward interrupting the debt cycle initiated in court-involvement. The Cook County traffic fee waiver has been running successfully and we are excited that it will now be a permanent feature of the law once SB108 is signed by the Governor.