There's a little conflict here.
Detroit needs the revenue. It also needs people to frequent its businesses, and getting expensive parking tickets isn't a great incentive for that. About 70 percent of the tickets are written to non-residents.
Nonetheless, Christine Ferretti of The Detroit News reports that the city is considering raising parking fines for the first time in more than a decade. And it is also considering getting tougher on repeat offenders who don’t pay up by blocking them from renewing their license.
The News reports that the city pays $32 to issue and process a $30 parking violation. And about half of Detroit's 3,404 parking meters don't work properly.
Ferretti writes:
The recommendations, which would bump the current parking fines of $20, $30 and $100 per ticket to a two-tiered structure of $45 and $150, are among the revenue-generating strategies recommended by Detroit’s restructuring consultants.
The recommendation have surfaced as Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr awaits an analysis of parking operations, according to The News.
