Session: 2023-2024
ACLU-PA Position: Opposes
HB 1617 (PN 1901) would amend 42 § 3733.1 to increase civil legal aid funding to the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network (PLAN) by imposing an additional $2 surcharge on every traffic offense statewide, mirroring the surcharge already imposed for each criminal offense.
HB 1617 would further increase the burden of excessive fines and costs for struggling Pennsylvanians, thereby increasing the risk of arrest for failure to pay. Each year, 400,000 bench warrants are issued for nonpayment in traffic cases, with more than 1 million such warrants pending right now. Those warrants lead to arrests and then even more money charged for warrant fees—all because people cannot afford to pay court debt. At an absolute minimum, funding mechanisms like this should be accompanied by a requirement that such costs—indeed all court costs—not be imposed on individuals who are too poor to pay.
There is no question that the ACLU-PA supports increased funding for legal assistance, whether it’s for public defenders via indigent defense funding or civil legal aid. Standing alone, the additional $2 surcharge that HB 1617 would impose on every traffic offense statewide may not seem like it will have much of an effect. But the roughly $200 in current court costs that a person must pay after being convicted of even a minor $25 traffic offense consists of many small costs like this. Those small amounts add up, and taken together, further punish the very individuals who receive civil legal aid services across the commonwealth.
Moreover, HB 1617 would exacerbate a perverse funding conflict. Every dollar that a legal aid attorney has successfully waived for a client, to ensure the client’s well-being, is a dollar that will not go to legal aid. This puts legal aid lawyers in an impossible situation—it pits their interests against those of their clients.
Civil legal aid should be better funded than it is now. But this vital work should be supported by a general fund appropriation and not a surcharge that functions like a regressive tax, disproportionately harming the Pennsyvlanians who are struggling the most.
Check the bill's status here.
