DC Lost Out on $55 Million in Unpaid Parking Fines Last Year: AAA

Hundreds of thousands of motorists refused to pay up for outstanding traffic tickets and overdue parking violations they racked up in the nation’s capital last year, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

The District government lost an estimated $55,313,586 in outstanding revenue from unpaid ticket fines and all accrued penalties during Fiscal Year 2014, according to figures obtained by AAA Mid-Atlantic.

The city failed to collect more than a quarter of a billion dollars – or approximately $266,178,702 – stemming from 1,534,188 unpaid traffic and parking tickets in the three previous budget cycles, AAA Mid-Atlantic reports Monday in a news release. Here’s more about the issue, from the release:

For the city, AAA points out, it causes budgetary shortfalls. For motorists, that unpaid ticket could ding your credit score or lead to your arrest, if it is a moving violation, warns the auto club. All told, stiff-arming motorists refused to pay 382,111 parking tickets, moving violation tickets and automated traffic enforcement (ATE) tickets in FY14. In the District, the fine doubles on any parking or traffic ticket that is left unpaid 30 calendar days from the date the ticket is received.

Ignoring an unpaid parking ticket or traffic ticket from the city can result in car booting, towing, license suspension or revocation and depending on the ticket, an arrest or an increase in insurance premiums. Even worse, the city has sicced its debt collectors to nip at the heels of deadbeat motorists with unpaid tickets, as it has since 2012.

“Although most motorists pay or challenge their parking or traffic tickets in a timely fashion, the latest deluge of unpaid parking and traffic tickets comes at a time when the city’s coffers are reeling from a precipitous drop in the number of automated traffic tickets,” remarked John B. Townsend II, AAA Mid-Atlantic’s Manager of Public and Government Affairs.

“Motorists are in arrears for hundreds of millions of dollars ($321,492,288) in outstanding parking tickets, unpaid moving violations, and overdue tickets generated by photo-enforced traffic cameras,” he noted. “On top of this, the number of ATE tickets dropped from an average of almost 70,000 tickets per month in FY12 to nearly 10,000 tickets per month in the early part of FY14.”

PHOTO: dcparking.org