Suffolk's $55 fee added to traffic tickets is illegal, lawsuit says

An Elmont man has asked a judge to rule whether a $55 administrative fee tacked onto Suffolk County traffic tickets is legal.

Sean Murtha was ordered to pay $290 to the Suffolk County Traffic and Parking Violations Agency in March 2023 for a lane change violation, which he paid the following month, according to his lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court in Riverhead. The total included a $147 fine, an $88 state surcharge plus a $55 county administrative fee.

His lawsuit, filed in June, argues that under state law the county is only allowed to charge up to a $150 fine plus the $88 surcharge, for a total of $238. Murtha argues the additional money is an unauthorized tax.

Murtha is seeking a judgment declaring the fee unconstitutional and restitution for himself and others who have paid it and additional damages. On Wednesday, he opposed the county’s motion to dismiss and asked for an injunction barring it from collecting the fee. The case is due back in court Feb. 22.

Murtha’s attorney, Daniel A. Johnston, of counsel for the Syosset-based Bell Law Group, noted such lawsuits are unusual because the fines are “just high enough to hurt, but not high enough to get people to do something about it.”

“It’s out of principle,” Johnston said. “The local government is bound by the law and somebody has to keep people accountable.”

The county in October sought to toss the suit for several reasons, including that local laws are presumed to be constitutional and Murtha didn’t demonstrate otherwise, and that he voluntarily paid the fee.

Murtha could have faced additional financial penalties for not paying, Johnston said.

If local laws are presumed constitutional, "that means the local government can pass any law it wants," he added.

The Suffolk Legislature passed a law enacting the fee in 2013 while the county was in a financial crisis, the lawsuit states.

Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, who took office Jan. 1, did not respond to a request for comment Monday but has hinted at reforms to traffic fees.

“It [the traffic agency] has to act with justice in mind and not producing revenue,” Romaine, a Republican, said during his Jan. 1 inauguration ceremony. “I am not interested in nickel-and-diming our citizens.”

Administrative fees on traffic tickets, excluding red light camera and bus camera tickets, raised $3.8 million in 2021 — the most recent year numbers were available, according to the 2024 county budget.

The traffic agency brought in about $48 million overall that year and spent $13 million, a figure Johnston shows the agency does not need the administrative fees to operate.

It's not the first time an administrative fee in the agency has prompted a lawsuit.

State Supreme Court Judge David T. Reilly in 2020 ruled the county’s $30 fee tacked onto $50 red light camera tickets was unconstitutional. The county is appealing and the case is due back in court Jan. 16. The class-action lawsuit was filed by Robert McGrath of Mount Sinai in 2016.

The Republican-controlled county legislature repealed the fee in December 2022 over the objection of some Democrats who warned the move could signal the county's acknowledgment that it was wrong to levy the fee.

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.