Salt Lake City kicked off a parking ticket amnesty program today that could help those with grossly overdue citations get sixty percent off of their fines. But there is a catch. They’ll first have to donate to a local nonprofit.
People can take part in the amnesty program by donating 10 dollars to a charity if they pay their ticket online, or by giving four cans of food if they pay in-person at City Hall. The City Council created the program to address extremely overdue parking tickets and only those with tickets issued before July 2014 will qualify.
Mary Beth Thompson is the acting Finance Director for Salt Lake City. She says the city has about 22 thousand overdue tickets out that qualify for a discount. She calls the program a good opportunity for those people with overdue parking fines to come forward and pay them off.
“To do just a regular amnesty program and just reduce people’s tickets, sometimes isn’t effective, and it becomes an expectation" she says. "But to do a give back program, or what we call a forgiveness give back program, is a little bit different. It means they’re giving something back but they’re also receiving a reduction in their parking citations.”
Thompson says the program supports a good cause, and Salt Lake City shouldn’t lose out on any money.
“Because these tickets are so old, they’re two years old, the collectability is very slight,” she says.
City leaders announced the amnesty program just a little over a month after the city’s parking pay station one-time dismissal program.
Tyler Christensen is a Parking Enforcement Officer for Salt Lake City. He says his goal isn’t to get as many tickets paid as possible, but to help people understand the parking system.
“In the downtown area our bike team isn’t really focused on giving tickets, because those tickets will come naturally just as we’re going through downtown," he says. "We’re more focused on helping people get used to the pay station and find good places that work for them to park.”
The parking amnesty program will go for the next 90 days. After that, the city will donate the money to the charities picked by the mayor’s office and the public. The cans of food collected will go to the Utah Food Bank.
