Sen. Bob Hertzberg has introduced two bills to protect poor and disadvantaged violators of minor traffic or transit offenses from unfair fines and penalties that can undermine their ability to hold a job or stay in school.

The measures are part of Hertzberg’s ongoing efforts to raise people out of poverty, rebuild the middle class and improve California’s justice system.

SB 881 prohibits suspending a driver’s license for minor offenses, such as failure to appear in court or inability to pay a traffic fine. More than 4 million Californians have suspended driver’s licenses because of a failure to appear or pay fines, according to a 2015 study conducted by the Western Center on Law and Poverty. Many people, in turn, end up losing their jobs, Hertzberg said.

SB 882 prevents public transit authorities from banning minors from purchasing or receiving a transit pass because they have a prior fare-evasion ticket. Transit fare evasion is the number one cause of juvenile citations in Los Angeles County, according to Los Angeles County Probation Department. Blocking people from riding public transit can prevent them from getting to school or work, and it can encourage more fare-evasion violations or other criminal conduct, Hertzberg added.

“For too long, we’ve allowed the fines and penalties for minor offenses to snowball out of control, and now we have a system in which an inability to pay can cost a person his or her driver’s license or bus pass and the ability to hold a job or stay in school,” Hertzberg said. “We must roll back these overly harsh penalties if we want to give people a fair chance to make amends without pushing them deeper into poverty.”

The legislation follows Hertzberg’s measure, SB 405, and Gov. Jerry Brown’s related budget proposal that together established a new traffic amnesty program. The program allows people to speak to a judge, before paying fines, restores driver’s licenses to people with a payment plan and reduces fee debts by taking a person’s income into account.

“We must encourage – not discourage – people to follow the law,” Hertzberg said. “Furthermore, we must support people who are working jobs and going to school and not allow excessive penalties that pull the rug out from under them.”