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City Starts 90-day Parking Ticket Amnesty Program

Aug 26, 2016 02:35PM ● By Jordan Greene

Salt Lake City Parking Kiosk – Jordan Greene

On August 9, Salt Lake City began their 90-day parking amnesty program to help with repaying overdue parking tickets. Any ticket older than the first of July 2014 is eligible for the program.

            If you have an overdue ticket you can get a 60% discount on any fines you may have collected, but there is a catch: you have to give to a charitable or non-profit organization. If you settle online you need to pay $10 to one of the non-profits listed or turn in four cans of non-perishable food if you pay the bill in person. The Salt Lake City mayor, Jackie Biskupski, wrote on her website, “When this was first proposed to me by our finance team, it sounded like a win-win for everyone involved.”

            The mayor’s office is optimistic about this program based on comments to their website. Biskupski’s office believes that the average ticket will be reduced by $70 and it’s possible that the city will settle 4,000 of the 22,000 eligible tickets and raise somewhere around $320,000 for the city. Not only are they excited to be able to settle thousands of parking ticket debts, they are particularly excited about the programs charitable donations.

            “While we will definitely measure the number of tickets we resolve, I think the true measure of success will be the money we raise for the worthy local charities being supported through the program,” the mayor wrote on her website.

            If all 4,000 tickets were resolved online they would raise $40,000 to be donated to various charities within the 90-day period. If all 4,000 were paid in person that would be 46,000 cans of food donated to the Utah Food Bank.

            The mayor’s team has also noted that the program has gained a lot of traction on social media. The effort has been shared across the various social platforms in an effort to get the word out. Residents have been encouraged to nominate the charities of their choice as recipients of the program.

            Parking can be scarce around town and sometimes just running into the office or the store for five minutes is enough to merit the little paper on your windshield. If you’ve been cringing at the thought of that ticket you forgot about two years ago, now is your chance to get it cleared, while doing some good.

            It is still advisable that we continue to park in specified locations for specified amounts of time and for specified amounts of money.  Unfortunately any tickets you get in the future will not be eligible for the program and it is unlikely that another amnesty program is in the near future.

            If you want to get that parking ticket cleared up, do so online at slcgov.com/pcd or drop off food donations in Room 145 at the Salt Lake City County Building, 451 S. State St. The mayor’s office has also stated that any overdue tickets not settled by the end of the 90-day period (which ends November 9, 2016) will be turned over to the State of Utah’s collection program.