WPCNR TRAFFIC TATTLER. By John F. Bailey. January 26, 2004: In Governor George Pataki’s laundry list of revenue-raising measures to erase the state budget deficit that he presented last week, he proposes a flat $30 surcharge applied on top of municipality-issued parking violations. This surcharge should the legislature enact it, could raise the White Plains Parking Ticket penalty to $45, not just $15 as proposed by the White Plains Parking Authority last week.
The White Plains Parking Authority Board voted to raise the present fine to $15 from the $10 level it is at now at their meeting last Tuesday evening, the same day Governor Pataki announced the Parking Ticket surcharge. It is the Governor’s plan to split the surcharge, with $15 going to the municipality which issues the ticket, and $15 going back to the state.
Whether or not the New York State legislature will approve that much of a surcharge, cut it altogether, or raise the surcharge, is conjecture at this point. It also may be not be enacted until late August, the usual time the state finally passes a budget. However, City Court Judge Joann Friia will be receiving the Parking Authority request for the $5 fine increase shortly if she has not already received it.
The Parking Authority, as reported by WPCNR last week, desires to raise the basic Parking Ticket $5, to meet other community ticket prices. Executive Director of the Parking Authority, Albert Moronie made the case for the raise to the Authority Board by showing other municipality ticket fines which all exceed that of White Plains. The Port Authority stands to net $900,000 more as a result of the increase.
If the surcharge goes the Parking Authority will net considerably more than $900,000, perhaps as much as $1.5 Million, (assuming an August passage of the surcharge), and with the additional $15 in effect for a full year in 2005, they stand to increase ticket income by a net of $4 Million more depending on when and if the surcharge is passed. WPCNR will check on that.
Presently, New York State charges such a surcharge on the state’s 6 largest cities, of which Yonkers is one. The Pataki 2004-05 Parking Surcharge will apply to every municipality in the state.
Should the surcharge go through, a $15 White Plains Ticket will turn into a $45 Ticket, whenever the legislature gets around approving it. It would also raise the issue of whether the surcharge would be collected retroactively to when the budget should have been passed, if it is delayed by the legislature (as it usually is).
Tickets at some of the other municipalities the White Plains Parking Authority cited as having fines higher than White Plains, will soar, too, the Pataki “Sting,” A Yonkers parking ticket, would cost with the Pataki surcharge, $65; In New Rochelle, $30; In Albany, $70; Bronxville,
