Amnesty for late fees on parking fines draws crowd
Darnell Goodman got a handful of $30 parking tickets in Baltimore’s Edmondson Village a few years ago, and never got around to paying them.
With late fees, his less than $200 debt to the city ballooned to more than $1,400. The 46-year-old Upper Marlboro man paid roughly half of it through a payment plan. Then he heard that the city would be offering an amnesty period Thursday and today, forgiving all late fees on outstanding parking tickets.
That brought Goodman to downtown Baltimore, tickets in hand. He joined a line around the Abel Wolman Municipal Building Thursday afternoon, hoping to rid themselves of some of the city’s estimated half-million unpaid parking citations.
“It really helped me out a lot,” said Goodman. He paid his $188 balance and celebrated by treating himself to a hot dog with chili and onions from the stand outside.
Mayor Catherine E. Pugh announced the amnesty program, which waives all late fees for delinquent motorists who pay the base fine, last month. It’s the first time the city has offered the program since 2003.
About one-third of delinquent motorists paid their tickets during that previous amnesty period, and the city estimates that this year’s could bring in between $3 million and $4 million.
Lisa Brown, 36, of Towson had been pulled over on Tuesday, and her car was towed and impounded due to an expired registration.
She came downtown Thursday to pay the outstanding parking tickets that had kept her from renewing her registration. With late fees, one of the tickets had grown to more than $500; the other was above $300.
“Together, I only had to pay $85,” Brown said.
Lawrence Payne said he didn’t know about the outstanding 2009 parking ticket on his old Buick until he got a letter about the amnesty program.
The 58-year-old tractor-trailer driver took off work to come get the $1,100 ticket reduced to the original $27.
“I didn’t know I had it,” he said. “I feel real good.”
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