New York – Councilman David G. Greenfield (D-Brooklyn) is urging drivers to take advantage of the city’s parking ticket fine-reduction program, which ends at midnight tonight. Since 2007, New York City drivers have been able to pay a reduced fine in exchange for pleading guilty to a parking violation online. This was seen as a win-win as it encouraged residents to pay fines and helped reduce a huge backlog of unpaid tickets. However, the city Finance Department announced last November it was ending this program – essentially because of how effective it was in providing incentive for drivers to immediately pay their tickets. Greenfield criticized the Finance Department’s decision then and is encouraging drivers to use this last day of the program to save money on parking tickets.

“This program has been hugely successful by saving drivers money while encouraging prompt payment of tickets. Unfortunately, it seems like anything that gives New Yorkers a break is disappearing in the city’s quest to make another buck off of hard-working citizens. I urge all drivers with unpaid tickets to consider taking advantage of this opportunity before it expires today, and I call on the city to rethink this decision. During a recession we should make it easier, not more difficult, for residents to pay their bills,” explained Greenfield.

The program, which typically saves drivers $22 on a $65 fine, has become very popular with drivers in recent years, with 680,000 parking tickets paid through the reduced fine program in 2009. That number doubled last year, when 1.3 million tickets were reduced through the program. While the city expects to save money as a result of this decision, Greenfield believes that its calculations are off because the program encouraged drivers to settle tickets rather than challenge them. Drivers win close to 50% of the time when they challenge a ticket. “If, as expected, more drivers challenge tickets because they can’t settle them, any savings the city is projecting will disappear,” Greenfield concluded.

Drivers can settle their tickets and pay a reduced fine by going to www.nyc.gov/dof and clicking on the “parking tickets” tab on the upper right hand of the page before midnight tonight.

(YWN Desk – NYC)