If you haven’t paid your parking tickets while parked in the city of Brainerd — you will.
The city is utilizing the Revenue Recapture Act, legislation the Minnesota Department of Revenue (MDR) enacted in 1980. The legislation allows the state to recapture taxpayer funds and apply them to debts taxpayers owe to other state agencies, the University of Minnesota and to certain governmental units.
Brainerd Police Chief Corky McQuiston said the city began the process of filing the claims with the MDR in February. McQuiston said the initiative began in the fall when Bob Olson, Brainerd City Council member, asked how the city was doing in collecting unpaid parking tickets. McQuiston said he received council support to find a way to collect fines and that is when he found out information about the Revenue Recapture Act.
McQuiston said fines will come out of an offenders’ state tax returns when they file in 2013.
“The city of Brainerd has a history of people not paying their parking fines,” McQuiston said. “We have people who have caught on to that (and) we really were not able to do anything besides having their vehicle towed. It has been frustrating. We needed a better way to handle these fines.
“We are trying to establish fairness, as we have people who abide by the fines and those who don’t. We want everyone to be treated fairly.”
McQuiston said there are 14 people who have five or more unpaid parking tickets from between 2007 and 2011. McQuiston said of those five people, two individuals have eight unpaid parking tickets and owe $400 each.
McQuiston said from March of 2007 to September of 2011, the city has a total of 577 unpaid parking tickets totalling about $28,645 in fines. McQuiston said some partial payments have been made. On average over the past four months, McQuiston said the city has written out about 92 parking tickets per month.
A warning letter was sent to the last known address of the individuals with outstanding parking fines, informing them that a new collection process was being implemented and attempting to give them a final opportunity to satisfy the unpaid fines, said McQuiston. If they don’t pay the fine, a claim will be filed.
McQuiston said most of the parking tickets are issued in downtown Brainerd in the two-hour parking zones.
“We know parking downtown is a challenge,” said McQuiston. “You have people living there, visitors shopping and those who work downtown. We know parking is not always as convenient as some would like but people have a choice on where to park.”
McQuiston said people can park a few blocks away during the day, where they would be outside of the two-hour restriction zone. However, not everyone has done that. The two-hour parking zones are in effect Monday through Fridays during the day. The two-hour parking is not enforced at night, on weekends or on holidays.
“It is our hope that this aspect of parking enforcement will compliment the recent improvements to the downtown area of Brainerd and help address this problem,” said McQuiston. “Ultimately our overall goal is to gain compliance with the parking rules and we hope that this will be a deterrent for the habitual violators.”
JENNIFER STOCKINGER may be reached at jennifer.stockinger@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5851. Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jennewsgirl.
Comments (9)
Add commentFairness is Fairness.
Everyone should be treated the same. Agreed. I'd like to see 2-hour enforced parking for all of the city officials and workers that support having this also enforced for the downtown shoppers, residents, and business owners/employees.
Cost will probably be as high
Cost will probably be as high as the fines.
hmm
Wouldnt this method be about the same as the method used in the photo ticketing. Where a photo was snapped of the license plate of someone speeding or running a red light, the name associated with that vehicle was then sent a citation.
That hit some roadblocks.
If you have identified the ones who obviously are thumbing their noses at you, go after them, doesnt the offense accumulate in severity?
Collection plan may be flawed.
"The purpose of the Revenue Recapture program is to assure that state agencies have a means to pursue collection of past due accounts from taxpayers. Revenue Recapture allows units of government to collect debts owed to the state by applying an individual's tax refund (or lottery winnings) against the amount owed to the state. "
These parking fines are owed to the city, not to the state. In addition, the program gives the state recourse to collect depts, and this may not apply to cities.
Focus on unsafe driving, not parking violations
I hold the unpopular opinion that there should be more ticketing of unsafe driving activities such as rolling through stop signs, speeding, tailgaiting and distracted driving.
In many instances, these activities are much more dangerous than parking violations.
remmington-
Completely agreed.
parking tickets
maybe if the city would do it every 2 hours instead of only when someone calls in. more people would take it seriously now it just a joke. mark tires oh my back out your car move it 2 spots over.
life is good.
Themamaof2
I'm afraid that I will have to say that you are uneducated on this topic.
Brainerd City Code 1310.09- "During the hours specified on the sign, no person shall park a vehicle in any limited parking zone for a longer period than is so specified and if such parked vehicle shall be reparked in the same limited parking zone on the same day within three (3) City blocks from its originally parked location, it shall be deemed to have remained stationary."
Do you know what the funny man in the funny truck with the funny chalk is doing? He's not drawing smiley faces on the tires.
Please take a moment to know what you are talking about before you start prattling.
no problem
we do not shop in brainerd for anything. it is such a loser town-high taxes on business,poor service and the snow plowing is unreal when we have any.