Editorial:

Vegas is owed millions

City should turn up the heat on motorists who fail to pay parking fines

Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Who knew that errant motorists could owe so much for violations committed when their vehicles were not even moving?

Las Vegas officials have ordered an audit to examine the problem of parking tickets that have gone unpaid since 2005 and now total $8.1 million a situation that has not significantly improved despite a more strict collections process that went into effect in July, the Las Vegas Sun reported Sunday.

Under the old policy, the city did not submit fines to a collection agency until they were overdue for 25 months. Now a vehicle’s registered owner receives two late notices within the first 180 days a citation is past due. And at 180 days the owner is notified that the fine will be turned over to a collection agency, which moves forward with the collection process at 270 days.

Vehicles that have amassed five unpaid tickets or accumulated $500 in fines are “booted” with a clamping device that renders them immobile. Also, the Motor Vehicles Department freezes a vehicle’s registration when a parking citation is 30 days overdue.

As Sun reporter Joe Schoenmann noted, Las Vegas is no different from other large cities, where millions in parking fines also go unpaid despite some drastic efforts to collect them. Little Rock, Ark., for example, enacted a “shame campaign” in which the worst offenders’ names were displayed in large newspaper ads. Even then, people failed to pay up.

Las Vegas has taken steps to improve the system for collecting this overdue money, but giving people nearly a year to pay their fines is lenient. These are violations for which fines have been issued, and these motorists ought to be forced to pay.