HB 699-FN-A-LOCAL – AS INTRODUCED
2005 SESSION
09/04
HOUSE BILL 699-FN-A-LOCAL
AN ACT relative to fines for parking violations.
SPONSORS: Rep. Kennedy, Merr 4
COMMITTEE: Municipal and County Government
This bill prohibits municipalities from increasing parking fines over the amount of the original fine. The bill permits municipalities to retain only $1 of any parking fine and requires the remainder of the fine to be paid to the state treasurer for deposit into a special off-street parking fund to pay for the establishment of off-street parking areas.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
05-0868
09/04
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Five
AN ACT relative to fines for parking violations.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Municipal Ordinances. Amend RSA 47:17, XVIII to read as follows:
XVIII. AUTOMOBILE PARKING CONTROLS.
(a) The city councils shall have the authority to adopt such bylaws and ordinances as are necessary to control the parking, standing and stopping of automobiles within the city limits, including ordinances allowing for the towing or immobilization of automobiles for nonpayment of parking fines and creating parking fines recoverable by means of civil process. No municipality shall increase any parking fine over the amount of the original fine levied.
(b) There is established within the office of the state treasurer a special off-street parking fund. Moneys in this fund shall be used by the state to pay the costs of establishing off-street parking areas. Of any parking fine collected by a municipality, $1 shall be retained by the municipality and the remainder of the fine shall be forwarded to the state treasurer to be deposited into a special off-street parking fund which shall be used by the state to pay the costs of establishing off-street parking areas.
2 New Subparagraph; Special Fund. Amend RSA 6:12, I(b) by inserting after subparagraph (234) the following new subparagraph:
(235) Moneys collected by municipalities for parking fines over the amount of $1, which shall be deposited in the off-street parking fund established in RSA 47:17, XVIII.
3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect January 1, 2006.
LBAO
05-0868
Revised 2/22/05
HB 699 FISCAL NOTE
AN ACT relative to fines for parking violations.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The New Hampshire Municipal Association and Treasury Department state this bill will decrease local revenue, and increase state revenue and expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2006 and each year thereafter. There would be no fiscal impact on county and local expenditures or county revenues.
METHODOLOGY:
The New Hampshire Municipal Association states this bill would prohibit municipalities from imposing late fees for failure to pay parking fines, and would permit municipalities to retain only one dollar from any parking fine, with the remainder to be paid to the State Treasurer for deposit into a newly established off-street parking fund to pay for the establishment of off-street parking areas. Because of the number of municipalities with parking fines and the variations in nature and amounts of their fines, the Association is unable to estimate the exact fiscal impact at this time. The Association states the cities of Manchester, Nashua, and Concord issued 81,000, 37,000, and 60,000 tickets in 2004 with total fine revenues of $1,188,000, $742,000, and $400,000, respectively. If the cities could retain only $1 from each parking fine, revenue to the cities would decrease by $1,107,000 for Manchester, $705,000 for Nashua, and $340,000 for Concord and be deposited into the off-street parking fund.
The Treasury Department states it is not possible to estimate the fiscal impact of this bill since the Treasury does not have the technical knowledge to estimate the number of parking tickets written by municipalities. The cost to set up and administer a separate fund within the Treasury are negligible. It is possible that there could be some increased administrative costs to perform on-going audits of remittances to this fund, but without knowing the volume of tickets or number of municipalities involved it is difficult to determine the exact fiscal impact at this time.