Milwaukee’s assembly reps disagree on proposed “Boot Bill”
“Booted” vehicles in Texas. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.
While state representative Leon Young (D – Milwaukee) called a proposal to boot cars of habitual parking violators “regressive,” the legislator advancing the bill said unpaid parking tickets cost cities millions – dollars that don’t belong in “scofflaw’s pockets.”
Rep. Peggy Krusick (D – Milwaukee), who authored what’s referred to as the “Boot Bill,” said unpaid parking tickets are a major source of lost revenue for cities, and Milwaukee is owed $32.6 million from habitual parking violators with three or more citations.
Assembly Representative Leon Young (D-Milwaukee)
But Young said the bill would unfairly target poorer, urban residents, who could lose their jobs if their cars were booted for past parking tickets.
“If you look at where the tickets are being issued, it’s in the urban area, near downtown, the north side of Milwaukee, the south side of Milwaukee,” he said. “People who live in urban areas where there’s a lack of driveways, there’s a bigger impact.”
Both Young and Krusick are Democrats; Young represents the 16th District, which includes parts of the central city and the near downtown area, and Krusick represents the 7th District, in the southwest part of the city.
Krusick said the bill provides opportunity to remove the boot, and provides plenty of time for habitual parking violators to pay or contest tickets.
Lower-income or not, she said, “You have to abide by parking laws.”
Assembly Representative Peggy Krusick (D-Milwaukee)
The proposed bill, Krusick said, requires a notice to be conspicuously placed on a booted vehicle that, among other things, explains how to get the boot removed. It would also require a booted vehicle to be released within three hours once the owner pays the required fees. Boot release fees are generally between $50 and $60; towing fees typically range from $90 to $150.
“The city of Green Bay has contacted us and is very interested in this,” she said. “The League of Municipalities endorses the bill for cities across the state of Wisconsin.”
Young, meanwhile, said he understood the budget crunch municipalities are facing, and he acknowledged that parking violators should pay their fines.
“It’s true, but the problem I have with the city of Milwaukee is they use parking as a revenue source,” he said. “Right now, the city of Milwaukee is in a crunch for money. One way to raise revenue is through parking.
“Parking at one point, the philosophy behind it was it was a supposed to be a public safety issue,” Young said. “It’s just another way to tax people. Quite frankly, this is not the time to do it. “
This is a solution looking for a problem. We already tow cars that fall into this situation. So why the need for boots? Is there a boot lobby out there? This is a bad way of going about the problem of scofflaws. While the city may be owed 32.6 million, they don’t tell us how much the city IS making due to parking tickets. I would think it is much much more than the amount owed. Anyone that lives in the city knows how aggressive Milwaukee tickets vehicles here. Enough is Enough.
How much have boot manufacturers have donated to Peggy Krusick? Are they actually writing the legislation? I can’t otherwise imagine why this is an issue she would choose to champion. Multiple means already exist to enforce unpaid parking tickets: towing, warrants, registration suspension and license suspension. A car owner with unpaid tickets cannot register their vehicle or renew their driver’s license, and is subject to arrest and lockup if they’re pulled over.
Milwaukee’s parking checkers are well-known for issuing tickets where no violation has occurred, for racing to ticket newly-parked cars before the driver can make it to the payment kiosk, for inserting tickets into passenger-side doors where drivers won’t see them, and for ticketing multiple times for the same violation. This will just be a new and more powerful tool for these uniformed miscreants to harass law-abiding people without consequence.