Restler proposes day fines model tied to income levels

Thank you so much.

I'm a little nervous to call you Chair Abreu, but I'll do it anyway.

We miss our finance chair, but thank you for stepping in, Majority Leader.

And I just want to say, Commissioner, it's always good to see you.

We miss you very much.

I miss you guys too.

And I have to just say I appreciate how impressively responsive you are.

Whenever there's an issue with the Department of Finance, you pick up the phone, you call, you try to work through solutions with us.

I know these last couple weeks have been bumpy, but I'm very grateful.

for your proactive and clear communication and your partnership.

And I really just want to commend you for that.

Thank you.

I'm grateful that we're moving forward on the amnesty program, and I think it's a noble thing and hopefully a way that we can generate some additional revenue for the city and help people get up to date on what they owe.

I've long been a big champion of the Day Finds model.

Which one?

The Day Finds model.

That Councilmember Brannon and others, I think actually this started as a Corey Johnson idea, that Councilmember Brannon took over and I think I have the bill now, I should know, whatever.

Oath has always hated it and they've always claimed that it's very challenging.

So the premise of the idea is that

For some people who are extraordinarily wealthy, a modest fine is a rounding error, and they don't care, and they'll pay it 100 times over, and it doesn't matter.

And for some people who are extremely low income, a modest fine causes enormous difficulties in their lives.

And if we were to create a pilot that...

Looked at income levels to inform what people could pay, it might actually be helpful in the city consistently collecting the revenue that we're owed and us

setting fines at a level that might actually deter bad behavior and improve conditions around the city of New York.

Is this an idea that you've considered?

Have you looked at this legislation previously?

Is it something you'd be open to exploring together?

Yes.

So I have not specifically thought about this issue.

I have heard about the programmatic model, but we're open to always discussing any new ideas that anybody in the council or anyone else might have on new policy ideas.

We're always open to that.

Great.

Well, we would love to explore that with you together.

Othe's always kind of claimed over, I guess, multiple administrations, at least de Blasio and Adams, that it would be very challenging to...

Confirm the income levels of the individuals, and that makes the implementation challenging.

We've suggested you would just affirm it yourself, what your income level is when you are paying.

But we thought it would be, we really think this is an overdue idea.

The amnesty approach is one approach.

We think this is actually a more sustainable model that would work better to not just collect revenue, but to improve behavior and conditions around the city of New York.

We're happy to discuss.

Thank you very much, and thank you, Chair, for the time.

Thank you, Chair Lee.

Do you have questions on Zoom at the moment?

12 hours behind us.

Shirley, are you there?

I'm here.

Sorry.

You're okay.

I'm good.

Yeah.

You have questions?

No, no, no.

All right.

Oh, you're saying because while we have quorum.

No, no, no.

I'm good.

Thank you.

All right.

You got it.

I'll now turn it over to Councilmember Morano, followed by Wong.