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.