New York – As of 12:01 a.m. Sunday morning, a controversial new law grants that extra 300-second cushion to move your car for alternate-side parking or from an expired Muni meter before getting slapped with a ticket.

“It’s not going to end the recession, but it gives people a little bit of a break in a tough time,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who faced off with Mayor Bloomberg over the grace period.

Bloomberg warned that the law would lead to “nothing but chaos” as fights spring up between drivers and ticket agents over whose watch to use. The City Council unanimously over-rode the mayor’s veto, wanting to put an end to “gotcha” tickets.

“Other cities have this [grace period] and it has not proven to be chaotic,” Quinn said. “It’s a nice and appropriate amount of latitude to give New Yorkers in a place where we all know it’s not easy to park.”

Of 10 million tickets issued in fiscal year 2008, 276,000 were written within five minutes of alternate-side parking restrictions going into effect.

Council analysts say the new bill won’t cost the cash-strapped city any money: Plenty of people will still get tickets after the six-minute mark.

The city recently hired scores of new traffic enforcement agents.

(READ MORE: http://www.nydailynews.com/)