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Just a few years ago, a court in Oregon could order the suspension of a person’s driving privileges if he or she didn’t pay the court fines.

The suspension would stay in place for 20 years unless something changed. People could apply for a hardship permit for specific reasons, like needing to get to work or go to doctor’s appointments. Still, if an Oregonian is already having trouble paying bills or lives in a rural part of the state, losing the ability to drive legally can undermine the person’s ability to thrive, or just survive.

In 2020, then-Rep. Tina Kotek sponsored the bill to change that. House Bill 4210 took away the ability of courts to do it.

It was a smart change. People can still get their driving privileges taken away, but it can’t be based on an inability to pay court fines.

Kotek’s bill corrected the problem going forward from the time it became law.

But what about all the people who it already had happened to? Gov. Kate Brown tried to fix that by covering the fines and fees of about 7,000 people. It didn’t get them all. It missed about 10,000. Kotek issued an order this week to cover the fees for them, too.

This only covers fines and fees for those with traffic violations who couldn’t afford to pay them. It doesn’t cover traffic crimes or other crimes.

Oregon should not be a place where people’s driving privileges are stripped from them just because they can’t afford to pay.