During 2013, the University of Oregon parking enforcement team issued more than 15,000 tickets and received payment for all but 6,000, reports dailyemerald.com.
The fee for those unpaid tickets doubles after 30 days. Because of the high number of unpaid tickets and the high price multiple offenders face to clear their fees, the university has created an “amnesty” program for parking offenders. During February, anyone with an unpaid ticket can pay fines at the original rate.
To qualify for the amnesty program, the citation must have been issued before Jan. 1, 2014, and the vehicle cannot be registered in the university parking system.
Without this new program, the parking and transportation department could potentially receive an additional $300,000.
After applying this program, that amount could drop to $175,000 in total.
“We’d rather collect a small amount than not collect anything at all,” says Gwen Bolden, director of parking and transportation department..
I think this is an very generous offer from the university. Sure, they’ll be losing some money, but compare that to the cost of administrating the thousands of unpaid parking tickets still in circulation, and it might be a sensible exchange. Some people procrastinate paying fines – out of rebellion, poverty and a hundred other things – and that’s only exacerbated when the fine increases in a way that seems arbitrary to the offender. This program gives those people a chance to settle up.
Read the article here.
