The D.C. Council chairman is fed up with fees and fines.
At a Wednesday meeting to talk informally about Mayor Vincent Gray’s 2013 budget, council Chairman Kwame Brown questioned if the District should be levying as many fees as it does now with the city regularly posting surpluses.
“At some point, we have to stop ticketing our residents for everything,” Brown said. “People are just tired of these huge fees. It’s time to reduce them… Right now, people just think that we’re gouging them.”
Brown suggested he might set up a committee to review the city’s structure of fines and fees to see whether any could be eliminated or reduced.
Other lawmakers signaled that they, too, were concerned about fines and were interested in exploring ways to lower them.
Pedro Ribeiro, a spokesman for Gray, declined comment because he had not seen Brown’s proposal.
But to balance his budget, Gray is banking on the city taking in more fines and fees.
In his 2013 budget, Gray proposed a dramatic expansion of the city’s ticketing traffic camera program, projecting new cameras could pull in $30 million.
Gray has said his proposal isn’t designed solely to generate revenue.
“The purpose of this really is to improve public safety,” the mayor said in March.
The idea got a lukewarm reception then from lawmakers and lobbyists alike.
“We’ve gone overboard with this,” Ward 4 Councilwoman Muriel Bowser said soon after the mayor released his proposal. “When our residents see a $30 million expectation of fines, they become increasingly upset.”
A spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic said Gray’s motive was money.
“In Washington, it’s about chasing the dollar,” Lon Anderson said. “Motorists equal money in the District of Columbia.”
