Posted on 07/30/2010 9:19:55 AM PDT by MichCapCon
Motorist with three unpaid parking tickets at one time should be looking warily over their shoulder at what state politicians are doing with legislation that has cleared the Michigan House but come to a stall in the Senate.
The bill would have the Secretary of State deny a driver license renewal to any motorist with as few as three unpaid parking tickets. It cleared the Michigan House last October on a vote of 68-37. But on June 30, when it was brought up for a final passage vote in the Senate, the chamber overwhelmingly rejected it with a vote of 14-23.
A motion to reconsider the defeat was then adopted, allowing the Senate to try another vote at a later date.
Under current law, a local court may refer a motorist with six or more unpaid parking violations to the Michigan Secretary of State. Once alerted, the SOS may not issue a driver license renewal until the person has paid all outstanding parking ticket balances and late fees and paid a $45 "driver license clearance fee." The Schmidt bill would reduce this threshold to three unpaid tickets.
The real issue is money for municipal governments.
Albert C. Mooney, Grand Rapids City Treasurer, submitted supportive testimony regarding HB 4726 to the House committee that first looked at the bill during October 2009. Noting that the city then had more than $3.5 million in uncollected parking fines, he predicted that passage of the bill would boost collections by as much as $500,000 for the first year and then provide more than $250,000 in additional collections for each year after that.
Summarizing the bill's intent, Mooney states at the outset that "The proposal is very straight forward - the bill helps cash strapped local units by using existing technology to collect parking fines."
(Excerpt) Read more at michigancapitolconfidential.com ...
“Obamacare is now law. Do you support that?”
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Touche! - (Checkmate, game-set-match, etc)
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You sound as bad as the NRA, demanding that all the unconstitutional gun laws be enforced.
Using parking fines for revenue is an insult to the “rule of law.”
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where’s the difference (legally) between stopping, standing and parking?
Lame.
You lost that argument.
Of course not.
Unless you put on your emergency flashers...then you can pretty much get away with murder.
Of course not.
Unless you put on your emergency flashers...then you can pretty much get away with murder.
And you sound like the Obama Administration, deciding to ignore laws you disagree with.
Logic impaired?
Watch more TV, there may be a pill you can take...
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This will serve one function - more stolen license plates, and more people driving without a license.
part of the problem is that the owner of the car may not be the driver who parked illegally and may not even know about the tickets. to lose your license over a speeding ticket, at least the officer KNEW it was the right person.
People who don’t pay their fines are not going to have any problems driving with an expired license.
I have to agree. Just because your car was allegedly parked illegally doesn’t mean that you parked it there, nor does it mean that the car was actually parked illegally. First, you should get your day in court. Second, a non-moving violation has NOTHING to do with having a license to drive.
I’m not saying that people shouldn’t pay their parking fines, if they broke the law. I’m saying that attaching such a fine to ones’ drivers license renewal results in a punishment that FAR exceeds the crime.
I won’t even delve into the issue of a lack of free parking that exists in many areas. Downtowns typically offer little or no convenient parking, and if a person only needs to run into and out of a store or diner, spending 20 minutes parking 3 blocks away and walking is not desirable. That kind of situation is a primary cause of people parking “illegally” in the first place.
My personal solution is to stay out of downtown. Walmart has free parking - everyone should.
Yep. Meters are nothing more than an income generating tool for cities. That said, I tend to agree with sticking it to people who park in handicap spaces.
Luckily, I live somewhere that has virtually no pay parking. I can’t tell you the last time I paid to park except a hospital.
I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the show Parking Wars. I do not envy the stupidity and hassle citizens have to go through over a ticket(Philly). I would go ballistic.
Oh, and another pet peeve. 30 minute meters. How often can one get any business done in 30 minutes (court, banking, lunch, dinner, shopping). Its not fair to require someone to return every 29 minutes so some schmuck can write a ticket and get his rocks off. And in this case, resulting in a license suspension/revocation.
I'm afraid that still doesn't absolve you of responsibility. Loan your car out to a friend (even if it's just to drive two blocks to the store and back) and let them get be at fault in an accident; you'll find out the hard way that you're still liable. Loaning out your vehicle is dumb, dumb, dumb.
Do you support the seizure of personal property? (The boot)
If I leave my personal property sitting where it is not supposed to be sitting (and inconveniencing others), I'd expect someone to "take" it and hold it until I reclaim it (and pay the costs.)
Obamacare is no different than parking laws? Nonsense.
At one point in my life I had a dozen parking tickets. Several times a week I was parking on a meter near a hospital for my wife to take physical therapy. Due to us having a van with a wheelchair lift parking options were greatly limited.
I'd come out and a parking ticket an illegally written one at that would be on my windshield. I'd call the city police department and tell them I was wrongfully ticketed and had a visible handicap placard where it was supposed to be and the officer failed to look. Actually a wheelchair lift was also highly visible.
In my state persons in possession of such placards can not be charged to park on government property included metered spaces on streets. I was told bring it by so we can see it. How many times do you think I did that after the first one? Once. Next time I called and was given the bring it by and let us see it routine. I said look it up it's in your records. {placards also have an ID number and are registered like vehicles in the database}. After that in the trash they went. Never heard another word about it.
Today's new parking ticket racket has gone up a few notches to extortion tactics being enacted by the city governments in the form of traffic light and speed cameras. To attempt to by-pass the Constitution and due process government calls the fines civil fines which is actually what a parking ticket is. Now if I get a parking ticket I can look then and there and determine if it was properly issued. Ask me what I was doing a week ago from last Tuesday and I can't tell you. If I get pulled over for speeding I know then and there what I was doing how fast I was going at that tie etc. Ask me a week from last Tuesday? I don't know.
We're being taken down a very slippery slope to a totalitarian authoritarian form of government. These movements always start out small with government be it city or federal taking more and more control of our lives on law and one act at a time. Next after not allowing license renewal will come property confiscation and forfeitures which has already opened up a huge can of worms of abuses of powers in law enforcement and our judicial system in dealing with far more serious offenses.
Read your home page and the words written there. They are correct. Parking citations should only be issued in cases of where public safety is actually endangered and not be used as a means of revenue. If a person parks in a place which endangers others then tow the vehicle for that reason with a reasonable fee to get it back not above what is the going market rate for a 10 mile tow. No one should be charged to park on public government owned property and parking on such should only be permitted where safety allows it.
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