The District says it is owed more than $300 million in unpaid parking and driving tickets, and the Department of Motor Vehicles might run an amnesty program to get some of those dollars into the city’s cash-strapped coffers. The amnesty would allow drivers to pay only the original fine with all penalties waived on delinquent tickets. Officials estimate that it would raise $6 million at a time when the District is facing a nearly $500 million budget gap in the next fiscal year. The amnesty program is part of the agency’s annual performance plan, which was approved by the city administrator in October and will be used to assess the achievements of the agency.
DMV chief Lucinda Babers said the change of administrations from Mayor Adrian Fenty to Mayor Vince Gray means the department will now have to “wait and see” whether its annual performance plan remains in place.
“We’ll wait to go over the plan in detail with the new city administrator and the new mayor to see exactly how we want to proceed,” Babers said.
The amnesty would be part of a wider effort by an agency often attacked by customers as being a nuisance to “make it easier, faster and friendlier to do business with DMV,” the plan says.
“In addition to increased revenue, [the amnesty] will also increase customer satisfaction by allowing customers who could not previously afford to pay their debt to do so and receive DMV services,” officials wrote. District drivers who have unpaid tickets are blocked from using DMV services such as updating their car registration.
The $300 million is what was owed to the city when the DMV wrote the performance plan about six months ago, Babers said. The older a debt becomes, the more difficult it is to collect, she noted.
D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown told The Washington Examiner that he hopes the DMV goes forward with its amnesty plan. Brown has repeatedly said that he wants to ensure the city collects what it’s owed in taxes and fees before cutting services.
“This is a perfect example of how we can start to fill the budget gap,” Brown said. “The amnesty will give us the opportunity to raise money now when we need it most.”
