A cap on city parking fines
Baltimore City Councilman Bernard "Jack" Young has introduced legislation to cap the maximum late fee on parking fines to five times the amount of the original ticket. That's surely going to win him a lot of votes from people who've discovered the late fees on their pair of two-year-old, $21 parking ticket have ballooned to more than $700 -- money that must be paid before they can renew their license or registration.
The excessive fees are one of the things that make residents feel the city is socking it to them every chance it gets. On the other hand, the city loses a lot of money from uncollected fines: Parking scofflaws currently owe some $132 million in fines and penalties.
The city hired a private firm to pressure violators to pay up. But think what lawmakers could do if they got their hands on that kind of loot; it makes the $40 million kitty that somehow fell behind the sofa cushions in the city Finance Department -- which council members are desperate to spend on saving parks and recs programs -- seem almost paltry by comparison.
But how many of those council members will have the courage to stand up and oppose a politically appealing cap on parking fines on the grounds that it would leave even less money for the kinds of programs they're clamoring to save? Not many, I suspect. How about you?
Comments
Here is a good idea...if you get a legit ticket PAY IT!!!!!!!!! They give you what...almost a month to pay a parking ticket?
Posted by: Anonymous | May 20, 2009 5:13 PM
@Anonymous: The problem is when you never get the ticket, never get anything in the mail, and never find out about it until 4 years later when you owe over a grand from some stupid ticket. I know too many people who this has happened to for it to be an isolated thing. I found out recently that apparently my car had been ticketed twice between 2005 and 2006. I never saw the ticket on my car. Nobody mailed me a letter. I knew nothing of then until I got a bill for over $1800 this summer. It's utter crap that someone can get screwed this way when they have a record of paying all of their other tickets just fine.
Posted by: Jerry | October 22, 2009 10:22 AM