Iowa cities would be able to raise parking fines if a bill that cleared a House Committee today becomes law. Under current state law, cities may only charge five dollars for overtime parking. Representative Bill Schickel, the former mayor of Mason City, says some folks abuse the system, as they know they’ll only get a five-dollar ticket.Schickle says business owners complain that parking spots are constantly blocked in front of their stores by repeat offenders. Representative Ed Fallon of Des Moines says cities are seeing increased parking congestion because of the lowly five-dollar fine.Fallon says people are finding it’s cheaper to pay the five-dollar overtime parking fine than park in a garage. He says they’re not requiring a fine, they’re just giving the cities the ability to set the fines at the level they want.The last time the legislature addressed the issue was in 1972, when it changed state law which had allowed 10-dollar parking fines and lowered that to a five buck limit. The bill under consideration sets no limit at all, and lets city councils decide how high or low overdue parking fines will be.
Iowa's Radio News Network
