My column today presents another example of just how massively screwed up are the priorities of Illinois’ political leaders and their blatant disregard for the people they’re paid to serve.
Leon Fields, of Glenwood, along with hundreds of other motorists, are discovering they are personally involved in the ongoing state budget impasse between Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democrats who control the legislature.
“They hit me with a $20 late fee because they ran out of money down in Springfield to mail out license plate vehicle sticker renewal notices,” the 68-year-old Fields told me during a telephone call. “Every year, we get sticker renewal notices from the (secretary of state), and this year no notice. Nobody told me they had stopped sending out notices. I didn’t get any warning from the state. Didn’t see anything on TV.
“You came to expect those notices a few months before your sticker had to be renewed, and we live in a world where we all expect those kinds of notices, bills from utility companies and such, reminding us it’s time to pay. And this state just stopped it. And then they told me because I was more than 30 days past due in renewing my sticker, I had to pay a $20 late fee.”
Shortly after talking to Fields, I traveled to the secretary of state’s station in Orland Park and quickly ran into a bunch of vehicle owners who were first finding out that the renewal notices stopped going out in September, that their plate stickers had expired and they owed a $20 late fee.
An employee at the Orland Park office estimated that about every other customer coming in to renew their vehicle sticker was being dinged with the late fee, and almost all said they had no idea that the secretary of state had stopped sending out the notices.
There were stories in newspapers about the secretary of state running out of money to mail the notices (I wrote a column mentioning it), and there were stories on the TV news, but no official notice from the state was sent to vehicle owners, and, well, a lot of people don’t read newspapers these days or watch the TV news.
“I called a lot of my friends and asked them if they had heard about it, and most of them said they were unaware of the situation,” said Fields, a retired manager for the Chicago Transit Authority. “Some had heard about it but hadn’t bothered to tell anyone else. People need to tell their friends about this so they don’t get hit with that late fee because, you know, to some people $20 is a lot of money.”
Fields said he tried to find someone to complain to in an official capacity and was shuffled from one bureaucracy to another. Someone eventually told him to call his state representative, Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City.
“I called the number they gave me, and his voice mail box was full,” Fields said. “I just think this is wrong, and someone ought to do something about it.”
The cost of mailing out the sticker renewal notices is more than $450,000 a month, according to a secretary of state spokesman. He said the office had mostly used its fund balance with the U.S. Postal Service and wanted to conserve what it had left to mail out license plates, stickers and other things deemed more essential than the renewal notices, which are considered a courtesy.
“The expiration date is right there on the sticker attached to the license plate,” spokesman Dave Druker said, “and the expiration date is probably in your glove compartment on the form you get with each new sticker. So it’s not like people don’t know when their sticker expires.”
“I’m not trying to sound insensitive,” he quickly added. “I understand the confusion this has caused and why people may be frustrated. But it’s not our fault. We simply ran out of money. This is the result of the state not having a state budget, and if people are unhappy, they should contact the governor’s office.”
Among the unhappy people I encountered Thursday in Orland Park was Terry Nolan, who lives in an unincorporated area near Tinley Park. He was hit with a late fee because his plate sticker was more than 30 days overdue.
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“I only found out about it because I had taken my son to a Northwestern Wildcats (basketball game), and a Chicago police officer pulled me aside in the parking lot and asked if I realized my license plate had expired,” Nolan said. “I told him I did not realize it, and he let me go with a warning, which was very nice of him.
“So here I am, and now I have to pay this $20 late fee because I never got the renewal notice I receive each year from the state. I think it’s a terrible thing that the people of this state are being made to pay for a problem between the governor and other politicians.”
Jennifer Valauskas, of Orland Park, had just paid a $20 late fee on her license plate sticker when she stopped to talk to me.
“I think it’s really unfair because I never got the renewal notice,” she said. “This is ridiculous. How many people is this happening to? Where is all the money going that they’re collecting from these late fees? It’s just ridiculous that our politicians screw things up, and we’re the ones who have to pay for it. They aren’t even paying the state’s bills.”
A secretary of state employee at the Orland Park office told me that day after day, angry vehicle owners are yelling at her when she tells them they owe $20 extra, and she wishes someone would make sure the word gets out about the lack of notices.
“They should have probably sent a green, fluorescent letter to everyone before they ran out of money, telling them you are not going to be notified through the mail because we’ve run out of money,” she said.
Secretary of State Jessie White has set up a notification process through his office’s website at www.cyberdriveillinois.com. If vehicle owners register online, they will get electronic reminders to renew their plate stickers.
“There are people who heard about this problem who wonder why this state is wasting so much money on snail mail when the reminder process could be done electronically at very little cost,” Druker said. “But I want to explain that once we have a state budget, once we have money coming in again, we will begin sending out renewal notices through the mail once more. This is only temporary due to the budget crisis.”
Druker seemed taken aback when I asked why White doesn’t simply waive the late fee during the budget crisis. He cited a law that mandates a late fee for those who are 30 days overdue in renewing their sticker.
So what? What if White said, “I’m not enforcing that law right now,” just like Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart did during the home mortgage crisis. Dart refused to evict people from their homes, although he was required to do so by law. And absolutely nothing happened to Dart.
And if anyone tried to put White in jail for refusing to collect a late fee from vehicle owners, I’m pretty sure that would make White the most popular elected official in Illinois.
As for police, they can issue tickets of $60 or more to any vehicle that does not display a valid license plate sticker. Several police officials I spoke with Thursday said their patrol officers have the discretion to issue a warning. Some said that if a motorist explained he had not received a renewal notice, a ticket would not be issued.
A sheriff’s spokesman said Dart is “concerned about the impact the secretary of state’s new policies may have on senior citizens and other vulnerable populations, and he has instructed our sheriff’s police to be on the lookout and to be very sensitive to these issues.”
Several people I encountered at the secretary of State’s station in Orland Park said police have given them a pass for an expired sticker and that’s why they became aware they had an expired registration. But employees at the office told me they’ve heard from many drivers who got a ticket in addition to being hit with the $20 late fee.
Tinley Park police Chief Chuck Neubauer, echoing what other police officers told me, said it’s ultimately up to every vehicle owner to make sure he complies with the law.
“You’re the captain of the ship, so to speak,” Neubauer said. “You’re responsible if a tail light is out. You’re responsible for having a valid license plate sticker on the car. The expiration date is right there on the sticker, so just go out and inspect it and make sure you are in compliance with the law.”
I get it. But this state has conditioned vehicle owners to expect the renewal notices in the mail. The secretary of state’s office has failed to adequately notify the public about the change.
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I asked how many have paid the late fee since November, but the office said it had no figures on that. But other data show that the number of vehicles registered since October is down sharply — by 15.4 percent in November and 23.6 percent last month — indicating that many owners were unaware that their registration had expired.
Some communities told me they are trying to reach out to residents via their electronic newsletters, websites or Facebook page to get the word out. That’s helpful.
But as long as the governor and legislators cannot agree on a state budget (now more than halfway through the 2015-16 fiscal year), the late fee should be waived.
“It’s simply unkind to the people of the state to make them suffer for a disagreement between our elected officials,” said a fellow, who would only identify himself as Royce, at the Orland Park station.
He’s absolutely right.