Jan 3, 2009 10:20 am US/Eastern
NYC Offers 'Discount' Parking Tickets
It's Estimated Only 13 Percent Of New Yorkers Take Advantage Of Opportunity To Cut Fine As Much As $25
Finance Dept. To Be Generous If You Keep Judges Out Of It
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
-
-
NYC parking ticket (file)
CBS
In these tough economic times, there seem to be markdowns on everything. But for New York City parking tickets? Who knew?
It's a program that was introduced in 2005 that has gone virtually unnoticed.
Pssst … want to cut a deal on a city parking ticket?
"I would certainly be interested," Keith Kurtzer said.
Believe it or not you can avoid paying retail for NYC parking tickets, but many New Yorkers just don't realize that they can.
"There are lots of good secrets to know out there that many people don't know," said Dave Garcia of Astoria.
Garcia, a defensive driving instructor, was trying to fight a parking ticket at a Manhattan business center Friday, admitted that even he didn't know the city routinely marks down tickets. But they do.
"The program has been wildly successful. It's had a couple of effects. One allows us to give everybody a fair shake and, secondly, reduce a lot of the variations among judges," NYC Finance Commissioner Martha Stark told CBS 2 HD.
Here's how it works. Any driver who challenges a parking ticket -- whether in person like many people did Friday, or through the mail or online -- is guaranteed a substantial reduction for most fines. You just have to agree to pay the reduced rate and not take up the time of a judge.
The city doesn't offer a deal for every violation. If you park next to a fire hydrant you'll pay the full freight.
Ticket discounts have enabled to city to cut the number of parking judges and reduce administrative costs by $2 million a year. But there's another advantage …
"If you come in and your ticket is not written correctly we dismiss it," Stark said. "In the past you used to have to tell us or at least know that your ticket was not written correctly so you had to be in the know."
The savings are as much as $25 a ticket.
Officials estimate that only about 13 percent of those who get tickets take advantage of the program.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
World's Most Useless Facts
Click to enlarge
Bronx Fire Leaves Dozens Homeless Before Holidays 5 mins ago 
Civilian Trial Or Dangerous Terrorist Platform? 55 mins ago 
Stumble It!
Reporting
Comments