A bill was introduced to the New York City Council Thursday that would make parking fines proportional to income.
The bill was introduced by Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan and would launch a pilot program to create means-based financial penalties for civil transgressions.
"Instead of bankrupting working people while winking at the rich by setting the same fines for everyone, fines should be high enough to discourage people from breaking laws that endanger or inconvenience our neighbors but low enough that they don’t arbitrarily upend anyone’s life," Brannan said, according to the Daily News.
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Though Brannan specifically offered double-parking as an example of the types of violations most suitable to the hypothetical program, a comprehensive list has not been offered.
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If successfully passed, the New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings would be responsible for determining the application of the sliding-scale fines.
"Why should the guy who double-parked his 1988 Toyota pay the same as the guy with the 2024 Bentley?" Brannan told the Daily News.
