Albany

It may soon get more expensive to stiff the city on parking tickets.

City Treasurer Darius Shahinfar wants to tack the expense of sending overdue tickets to a collection agency on top of the unpaid fines to keep taxpayers from having to foot the bill to pursue scofflaws.

If approved by the Common Council, the new fees could increase the cost of failing to pay by as much as 20 percent, Shahinfar said.

"If people don't want to pay that, pay up your old tickets now," Shahinfar urged.

As it is, city parking tickets are already subject to state surcharges and the fines double if not paid or contested within 20 days.

That means a $35 ticket for violating alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules, which comes with a $15 surcharge, could cost a motorist north of a $100 with a 20 percent collection premium.

While an amnesty late last year put a dent in the city backlog of unpaid tickets, the number has crept back up to around 60,000 worth about $5.5 million, Shahinfar said.

Albany recently sent its first batch of past-due tickets to its new collections agency, Indiana-based Unique Management Services.

The city had not previously sent unpaid tickets to collection, but Shahinfar warned last year that's where they would be headed if the accounts weren't settled by the end of the amnesty on late fees, which was dubbed Food for Fines because it also raised charitable contributions for local food pantries.

Under its contract with the UMS, the company keeps 17.5 percent of the money it helps collect.

The city's plan, inspired by a similar policy enacted last year in Schenectady, is to add UMS' 17.5 percent cut to the cost of the ticket, as well as any mailing costs associated with the collections notices, Shahinfar said.

When Schenectady added collections costs to its outstanding fines, it did so only for tickets issued after a certain date, Corporation Counsel Carl Falotico said. Albany's proposed ordinance does not specify whether it would apply retroactively to tickets already issued, and Shahinfar said the city is looking into whether that's possible.

Total revenue from parking fines and surcharges increased to $3.3 million last year from $2.75 million the year before — about $300,000 of which came during the amnesty, Shahinfar said.

That rebound came after parking ticket revenue plunged by $900,000 in 2014 thanks to a drop-off in ticketing.

The Albany Parking Authority took over parking enforcement from the police department last year in hopes of boosting the efficiency of when and where parking enforcement officers are deployed.

The city's collection rate on parking tickets was about 85 percent last year, Shahinfar said.

The ordinance authorizing the new fee is expected to be introduced to the Common Council Monday night.

jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com • 518-454-5445 • @JCEvangelist_TU