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City Council bill

New York Politics

Rich in NYC would pay higher fines for parking tickets,

other violations under new City Council bill
By Chris Sommerfeldt
New York Daily News • Apr 27, 2023 at 10:48 am

A bill introduced in the City Council on Thursday would create a new sliding scale fine
structure under which low-income New Yorkers would pay less than their high-income
neighbors for civil transgressions like double-parking.

The legislation, penned by Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan, does not specify
which fine categories should be on a means-based sliding scale. Rather, it directs the
city Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings to design and launch a pilot program
using the so-called “day fines” structure and then report findings back to elected
leaders.

One civil violation category that Brannan off the bat said should be explored as part of a
pilot is double parking, which can set offenders back $115 under the current system.

“Why should the guy who double parked his 1988 Toyota pay the same as the guy with
the 2024 Bentley?” Brannan told the Daily News.

Similar programs are already used in some European countries, including Sweden,
Germany and France. Several U.S. cities, including Bridgeport, Conn., Milwaukee and
Maricopa County, Ariz., have launched pilot programs . An effort was also tried on
Staten Island in the 1980s.

“Instead of bankrupting working people while winking at the rich by setting the same
fines for everyone, fines should be high enough to discourage people from breaking
laws that endanger or inconvenience our neighbors but low enough that they don’t
arbitrarily upend anyone’s life,” Brannan, a Bay Ridge Democrat, said.

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Other than parking tickets, civil fines in New York City cover everything from illegal
dumping to building and fire code violations. Education
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“We will review the bill,” Adams spokesman Fabien Levy said. 50m

Beyond perceptions of fairness, a 2017 study from the U.S. Fines and Fees Justice
Center found that day fine programs improve a government’s ability to collect on
outstanding tickets, reasoning that an offender is more likely to pay a levy they can
afford without breaking the bank. In addition, the study says day fine structures reduce
recidivism.

Brannan’s bill comes on the heels of a report from the Independent Budget Office
finding that the city has not collected on more than $2 billion in tickets issued over the
past five years. More than half of that outstanding revenue is for unpaid parking and
speed camera-enforcement tickets.

“We can fix this with day fines,” Brannan said.

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