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I have received more parking tickets in the past year than in the previous 20 years of driving.\u00a0 I have not changed my habits or parking in different places.\u00a0 I believe it is extra enforcement because of the tight city and town budgets.\u00a0\u00a0 So, how do they get revenue?\u00a0\u00a0 Start writing tickets.<\/p>\n
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I have received eight tickets from six different towns.\u00a0\u00a0 One time I just stopped by\u00a0for two\u00a0minutes to drop something off \u00a0and got nailed.\u00a0\u00a0 Another time, I paid for two hours (at 25 cents every 15 minutes) and received a ticket at 12 minutes past the two hour limit.<\/p>\n
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Technically I am guilty.\u00a0\u00a0 I get it.\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t have a leg to stand on in court.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, I was over the limit.\u00a0 I almost always pay for parking.\u00a0\u00a0 I run late every now and then.\u00a0 But there is no leeway anymore.\u00a0\u00a0 It is just part of the harsh attitudes people (via government) have towards one another these days.<\/p>\n
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The other thing that is oppressive about parking tickets is they give you 30 days to pay or it doubles.\u00a0 If you are late beyond 60 days, it doubles again.\u00a0 Plus the tickets themselves have gone up.\u00a0 I regularly pay $25 a ticket — wait a few months and it can be $100.\u00a0\u00a0 Just for an extra 10 minutes!\u00a0 It is horrible.<\/p>\n
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Again, I know I am guilty of ‘stealing time from the parking spots.’\u00a0 So I have to pay.\u00a0 But what happened to a little leniency?\u00a0\u00a0 I am not intentionally trying to get one over — most of my tickets have come from doing a bit more work or shopping in the stores.\u00a0\u00a0 I have actually stopped going to certain towns to shop because of the parking.\u00a0 I\u00a0have started shopping in towns with\u00a0free parking or those without these over-zealous parking commissioners.<\/p>\n
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Maybe in the long run the revenue from lost sales taxes (because less people will want to deal with the parking) will overcome the extra parking violations.\u00a0\u00a0 Or maybe not.\u00a0 But it seems like this policy is just one more way of the government taking money from people and creating nothing of value to help the economy.<\/p>\n
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Unintended consequences?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"