New York, NY – The city handed out 13,000 fewer parking summonses and saw its ticket revenues nose-dive by $30 million last fiscal year — despite a record number of traffic agents on the street.
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Downtrodden motorists too broke to pay their tickets are driving the sudden plummet in revenue, driver advocates theorized.
Motorists shelled out $624 million in parking fines in fiscal year 2008, compared to $595.7 million in fiscal year 2009.
“They just don’t have the money,” said Glenn Bolofsky, founder of parkingticket.com, which helps drivers fight tickets in court. “If revenue is down, it’s only because individuals and businesses can’t afford to pay.”
City officials have a different theory about the 4.5 percent decline in revenue. Mayoral spokesman Stu Loeser says the city has made it easier for motorists to challenge their tickets online, and contested summonses generally garner reduced fines.
The number of tickets doled out by the city’s steadily swelling ranks of traffic agents declined by less than 1 percent.
There are 2,656 city traffic agents, up from the 2,527 in fiscal 2008 and only 1,900 in 2004. Yet that extra manpower scribbled 13,322 fewer tickets this year — 9,937,897 compared to 9,951,219 in fiscal year 2008.
The reason number 1 is its election year.
Wait and see if Mr. Bumberg wins the elections he will double the tickets.
The reason is that more motorists are parking legally and getting even with the city. Way to go! Maybe they should drop the fines a little bit if business is bad say $50.00 a ticket they may make it up in volume? HA HA
9 million tickets at $50 a ticket = 450 million dollars!!!!!!
and that’s a low estimate
It’s election time. Every 4 years this article by the NY post appears. Google the article and it’s the same bs.
Bloomberg pulled this stunt with the coucher 7 program and then gave the program an additional 6 months.
guess when the 6 months end? A day after elections!
Bloomberg can’t be trusted and he does not care about us or anyone in this city.
name one good thing Bloomberg has done for an orthodox jewish cause over the last 6 years? Nobody has yet to come up with one good thing but many said he’s the best mayor!
Bloomberg has had more civiliant complaints against the NYPD under his administration compared to Gulaini and Dinkins.
Bloomberg has had more corruption under his administration than Gulaini.
Bloomberg has highered taxes more than the previous mayors.
Under Bloomberg , con ed bills went up, MTA FARES went up, gas bills have gone up, phone bills in NYC have gone up, Just about everything excdpt air to breath went up in proice. EVEN our water bills have gone up!
Some people say this has nothing to do with Bloomberg. If Bloomberg really fought and cared for the middle class he would be the first one threatening and fighting for the middle class but he doesn’t because he does not care about anyone.
Term limits were set by a majority of the voters and he overturned what he voters wanted -term litmits!
When we vote on election day DO NOT VOTE FOR BLOOMBERG.
And one more problem we have in the jewish community is affordable housing.
Bloomberg has done nothing about affordable housing yet he says the words we want to hear but no action.
Can anyone name 5 good things he has done for the city of New York and please do not write kept crime low because this has to do with the police and the commissioner who sets the tone not the Mayor. Guliani hired William Bratton and thats what got the crime going down so Guilaini does get credit for hiring the right person who started compstat.
Can anyone name one or two good things Bloomberg has done for the jewish community?
have the traffic agents been working in bloomies neighborhood too or only where the middle class folks are?
with all those rude agents out there one would think the revenues would be up. perhaps those un educated oafs are just filling out tickets to make the quota but not doing tickets properly and thats why they are being contested.
do u work for Thompson for Mayer?
oh oh I smell another rate increase to make up for the lost revenue!
Why I don’t understand is why no decent Republican is running against Bloomberg, are we all so hopelessly afraid of this rich guy?
Is Fiscal Year 2009 over, or does it end on Dec 31, 2009? If the FY is Jan – Dec, the article is comparing a full 12 months in 2008 against 8 months in 2009. Shoddy journalism if that’s the case.