![\"traffic](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/parking-ticket-issued-getty.jpg\" "\\"Op-ed")
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If you leave your trash out too early, fail to shovel after a snowstorm, or get cited for a noise complaint, you can end up with a ticket from the city. These are the kinds of low-level civil fines most New Yorkers run into at some point, and they\u2019re supposed to be simple: break the rule, pay the price.<\/p>\n
Photo via Getty Images<\/p>\n
If you leave your trash out too early, fail to shovel after a snowstorm, or get cited for a noise complaint, you can end up with a ticket from the city. These are the kinds of low-level civil fines most New Yorkers run into at some point, and they\u2019re supposed to be simple: break the rule, pay the price.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the problem: the price is the same no matter who you are. A $200 fine might completely upend one family\u2019s budget, forcing them to choose between paying the city and paying the rent. For someone else, that same $200 is so small it barely registers. The result is a system that often fails at the one thing it\u2019s supposed to do: change behavior.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why we\u2019re proposing something new. Our legislation would launch a pilot program to test a better approach: fines based on income, also known as \u201cday fines.\u201d The idea is simple: a fine should sting enough that you don\u2019t want to break the rule again. If it\u2019s too small to matter or too large to ever pay, it misses the point. Scaling fines to income keeps them meaningful for everyone.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t about punishing anyone or giving anyone a break. It\u2019s about basic fairness and common sense.\n<\/p>\n
Right now, New York City is owed more than $1 billion in unpaid fines and fees. That\u2019s not because people are all scofflaws. It\u2019s because many fines are simply unpayable for the people receiving them. And when people can\u2019t pay, the city collects nothing, behavior doesn\u2019t change, and trust in the system erodes.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, when fines are too small to matter, people with means simply pay them and continue their previous behavior. Nobody wins.\n<\/p>\n
Other countries have figured this out. In Germany, Sweden, and Finland, fines are routinely scaled to income \u2014 and compliance is higher as a result. In Finland, a wealthy driver once paid over $100,000 for speeding, not because the government wanted to \u201cpunish the rich,\u201d but because that was what it took for the fine to have the same impact on someone earning far less.<\/p>\n
Closer to home, San Francisco and Washington, DC have explored income-based fines for low-level offenses with promising results.\n<\/p>\n
And this isn\u2019t just theory; we\u2019ve seen it work right here in New York already. A small-scale pilot in Staten Island tested income-adjusted sanitation fines and found that more people paid on time, and repeat violations went down. If it can work in Staten Island of all places, there\u2019s every reason to believe it can work citywide.<\/p>\n