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May 16, 2023

NYC parking ticket fines based on income a new way to pick drivers’ pockets (opinion)

C'mon, you know you can afford it. (Staten Island Advance/Rachel

C'mon, you know you can afford it. (Staten Island Advance/Rachel Shapiro)Staff-Shot

Are you a "rich" driver?

Get ready to pay the price for it.

Democratic Brooklyn City Councilman Justin Brannan has a new idea to pick money out of the pockets of drivers: he wants the fine you pay for a parking ticket to be based on how much money you make.

Brannan's legislation, which has been introduced in the City Council, doesn't lay out what exact infractions would be covered under this means-based, sliding scale ticket system, according to the Daily News.

But Brannon said that double-parking should be among the first violations explored as part of a pilot program called for by his legislation.

"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.

Because they broke the same law, councilman. They took up the same illegal space. They caused the same inconvenience to others. They showed the same disdain for the law.

Brannan said this sliding-scale fine system would deliver "equity."

That's a prime knee-jerk buzzword for Dems these days. Everything they do is about "social justice" and "equity" for the downtrodden. So who can argue?

I can. It's on the face of it unfair for some people to be charged more than others for breaking the same law.

Equity means being fair and impartial, not having a separate penalty system based on wealth or any other measure.

If you’re really interested in discouraging bad or illegal behavior, like double-parking, then increase the penalties for all offenders and strictly enforce them on all offenders.

The Independent Budget Office said that New York City is missing out on more than $1 billion in uncollected parking fines since 2017, according to WABC-7 News.

How about we attack that massive enforcement problem?

If some people know that they’ll be paying less to break the law, that will only encourage them to break the law. After all, they’ll get a discount and some rich driver can make up the difference for city coffers.

And who, exactly, are "the rich"?

To someone who lives in Mariners Harbor, I might appear rich. To me, the folks who live on Todt Hill might be "the rich." And those Todt Hill folks might have their own ideas about who is truly "wealthy."

It's a moving target no matter how you look at it.

And how would we vet somebody's income under this plan? How would we know how much somebody truly makes so we can fine them accordingly?

Brannan said that "it's 2023, and they have the technology where they could pull it up right away pull up your tax receipt online and the fine will be calculated according to your income," according to WPIX-11 News.

Really? Every NYPD traffic cop would be given access to my tax returns? Thanks, Big Brother.

But even so, not everybody files taxes. Not everybody files truthful taxes. And people work off the books. People have side hustles that generate money in addition to their stated income. People make cash tips in addition to their paid salaries.

Hiding income is as much America's pastime as any sport is. You can't base a penalty system on it. And it's actually "the rich" who have the means to better hide their income.

And how will we know that the driver of that double-parked Bentley is actually the owner of the vehicle? Who should pay the fine, the driver of the vehicle or the owner?

It doesn't matter. As long as we can have a class-warfare rant against "the rich," we’re OK.

MORE OPINION FROM TOM WROBLESKI

Moving of Staten Island speed camera shows that we don't need speed cameras in NYC | Opinion

Still NYC's most notorious speed camera | Opinion

How NYC rigs speed camera system to rip off drivers | Opinion

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