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# Untitled
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/062303-story/
- Published: 2003-06-23T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:23:40.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import

To help meet a $16.1 million budget shortfall, city officials agreed last week to raise the cost of most parking tickets issued by the City of Santa Monica.

Now, for example, parking in a “preferential” spot will cost $47 instead of $38\. That’s right, nearly 50 bucks for “misreading” the sign. The fee for an expired meter is set to go from $28 to $35.

There are more than 50 types of parking violations in Santa Monica and the city controls the fee levels for 30 of them. The increases are expected to generate $2.2 million for city coffers.

Councilman Bob Holbrook, who cast the sole dissenting vote against the increases said, “The rates that are proposed are excessive.”

So this week Q-Line wants to know, “Is $47 too much to pay for a parking ticket? In what other areas could the city make some extra cash?”

Call (310) 285-8106 with your response before Thursday at 5 p.m. We’ll print them in Friday’s paper. Please limit your comments to a minute or less. It might help to think first about the wording of your response.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 23, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/062303.pdf?ref=smdp.com)