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Dyster Will Squeeze Locals for Ticket Revenue

By Frank Parlato

Even if he did not propose raising taxes next year, Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster did find one area where he could get more money from the people: Parking and traffic tickets.

Parking ticket revenue, which means traffic tickets pleaded down to parking tickets, has averaged $300,000 a year.

Dyster wants to double it to $600,000 next year, which means an awful lot of you reading this will wind up with tickets and your day in court, with the end result of paying a healthy fine.

The road to paying City Administrator Donna Owens $110,000 a year is to drive police to issue more tickets.

Dyster said in his budget speech last week, “An area of income generation we need to work on for next year is... revenues from parking enforcement, including tickets and court-imposed fines. The principal purpose of a parking enforcement system is not, of course, to generate revenue. But that doesn't mean we should leave money on the table.”

Encouraging the police to give out more tickets will be a nuisance to some tourists and a major financial pain to the people who will shoulder the heaviest burden under this new, mean-spirited, income generator, the people who live here.

Expect to spend time in City Court this year, pleading to a crooked license plate, a missing taillight, gliding through a stop sign, bald tires, improper opening of a vehicle door, improper turns, failing to obey signs, failing to stop at a pedestrian crossing, failing to share the road, improper right turn, improper left turn, failing to signal, unnecessary slow driving, failing to lower headlamp beams and the like.

Before you might have gotten off with a warning. Now you are likely to get a ticket - which can be pleaded down to a parking ticket.

Giving poor people tickets is the way to pay $100,000 salaries at city hall.

 

 

Niagara Falls Reporter - Publisher Frank Parlato Jr. www.niagarafallsreporter.com

OCT 08, 2013