A new bill has been introduced by the New York City Council that would require wealthier people to pay more for parking tickets and illegal dumping than someone of a lower economic status. Though the current rate for a parking ticket in New York is $115, the new bill is set to make this number go up for the wealthy, per CBS News.
Justin Brannan, City Councilman, said: “We’re trying to say, look, if it’s pinching the little guy, then it’s gotta pinch the big guy too, and right now, it’s not.”
Brannan is apparently offering up a pilot program that would see the cost of civil fines being determined by the individual’s income. This would mean that a billionaire would have to pay more money for the same violation than, say, a garbage man.
However, it is difficult to understand the logic behind this proposition. If the cost of a parking violation will differ depending on one’s income, then why is this same method not being executed in other spheres, such as the cost of a government-issued license or vehicle tabs?
To make matters worse, the report noted that the independent budget office discovered that New York City is owed around $2 billion in unpaid fines from just the previous five years. Though there is no data on this, it is plausible that these outstanding fines are due to less-wealthy people failing to pay for the violations they have committed. It is nonsensical to have the wealthier economic bracket be financially penalized for the violations made by those with less money.
Advocates of the bill have suggested that scaling the fees would encourage more people to pay for the violations. However, the only people who would be more willing to pay their fines would be those who have the cost of their fines reduced, not wealthy people who have their fines increased. This suggests that those who are currently not paying their fines are the less wealthy, not the millionaires.
Additionally, it appears that many wealthy people in New York have already fled the state, with the New York Times reporting that over 1,400 millionaire taxpayers had left in 2021, and this is only 500 fewer than those who left in 2020. It does not bode well for the longevity of a city to continue penalizing its wealthy taxpayers for violations and shortcomings of the less wealthy. This apparent exodus of millionaires from the Big Apple could continue, as quality of life issues and financial disincentives continue.
The report mentioned that one person said, “Just because they’re rich doesn’t mean they should pay extra.”
A New Dorp resident disagreed: “If you make more money, I think you should be able to afford to pay more.”
Brannan added: "What they do in Europe right now is basically they have the technology where, the same way they have a digital machine that puts in your information, they can look up your tax receipts and know what your income is.”
The bill has yet to pass through a hearing in the council.
