Parking fines and speed-camera tickets are costly in Chicago and it’s all too easy to let them grow yet more expensive.
That’s because most tickets doled out by the city are subject to a penalty of 100% if they remain unpaid for longer than a few weeks. That $100 ticket for turning right on red where or when no such turn is allowed becomes $200 for anyone not paying close attention, a hefty chunk of change for most Chicagoans. Additional penalties can also accrue over time.
This month, though, Mayor Brandon Johnson has announced an amnesty program wherein all of those penalties have been waived. For anyone with a backlog of even one overdue ticket, not that we would know any such people, the savings are considerable. There have been amnesty programs before, but it has been a long time since they were applied to everyone.
For example, the amnesty put in place in 2022 by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot was attached to income restrictions, meaning that any family collectively earning over about $80,000 did not qualify. This time, everyone can take advantage.
Anyone who paid a ticket along with a hefty penalty last month has the right to feel irritated. But in general, this is a win-win idea in that it gives cash-strapped Chicagoans a break, turns uncollected city debt into money in hand at a time when the city desperately needs to improve its ledger and allows those who got trapped in the fine-and-penalty vortex a chance for a fresh start.
The ticket debt has to have been accumulated in 2023 or earlier, but those are the tickets that are the hardest for the city to collect as they are more likely to be freighted with massive penalties. We don’t doubt the Johnson administration considered an income restriction for this program, but since part of the aim of this endeavor is to turn long-standing IOUs into cash, the mayor was smart to apply it across the board.
Simply put, that means it will bring in more money. We imagine Tuesday was a banner day for the Department of Finance, although you have until June 30 to take advantage.
The same consideration is being applied to city stickers. Per city ordinance, any sticker for residential parking purchased after the grace period of 30 days, even if you were out of town, is subject to a $60 late fee; that’s typically 60% of the cost of the sticker itself, depending on the vehicle. That means folks who forgot to buy within that window are likely to balk at the penalty and decide to risk the chance of being caught for the remainder of the year. But for the month of April (only) that late fee has been waived meaning that if you’re tardy on your sticker purchase, you can avoid the penalty.
We’re no fans of the entire street parking situation in Chicago and we know no one who disagrees with us. The horrendous decision made in the Richard M. Daley administration to sell off that revenue for decades to come has hamstrung the city in all kinds of ways.
It has prevented City Council from manipulating pricing or time limits to juice action in the Loop. Removing parking even temporarily for street festivals and other community activity means reimbursements have to be made. And, of course, the rates are egregiously high, hurting downtown the most but also neighborhood businesses. But after the failure of various legal challenges, it appears that nothing can be done about any of that until 2083. If you are still reading our page then, we’ll have more to say about that, but, barring medical miracles, we’ll have to leave that for our successors.
This is something the city could do and we are glad it did.
Now pay your debts, Chicagoans. That’s your end of the bargain and there is nothing like a clean slate.
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