New Bill Aimed at Scaling Parking Tickets According to Income

By Matis Glenn

Councilman Justin Brannan introduced legislation Thursday to adjust the amount people pay for parking tickets based on their income.

“Fines should ideally cause the “right” amount of pain: high enough to deter bad behavior, but low enough to avoid causing undue hardship,” Brannan said in a statement. “Double parking, which can cause backed up traffic and create dangerous street conditions, carries a standard $115 penalty in New York City. For some New Yorkers, maybe that’s the right amount of pain. But for a low-income family living paycheck-to-paycheck a $115 ticket can mean less food for their kids that week. Meanwhile, for a billionaire the impact of $115 is negligible.”

The program would begin as a pilot, and be reviewed after launch.

City Councilman Kalman Yeger wrote on social media that the bill is “unconstitutional.”

Brannan pointed to similar programs in Sweden, Germany, and France, and some cities in the U.S. as well.

“What they do in Europe right now is basically they have the technology where, the same way they have a digital machine that puts in your information, they can look up your tax receipts and know what your income is,” Brannan told CBS.

The bill will have to pass through the committee process, a full Council vote, and the mayor’s approval to become law.