Update on Borough Council’s increase in parking fines at May 16 meeting

SOMERVILLE – The Borough Council will consider a recommendation to increase parking violation fines by 25 percent at its May 16 meeting.

The proposal calls for an increase of $6 from the current $18 fine, according to Kevin Sluka, Borough Clerk/Administrator.

Raising the fine to $24 for those drivers who overextend their stay in a metered spot is necessary for the borough to break even on the costs of maintaining the program, according to Sluka and to counteract a decrease in the number of parking tickets issued last year.

Somerville takes in $100,000 annually in overtime parking fines, according to Sluka, of which $60,000 goes to Trenton to support state programs.

“That leaves us $40,000 and enforcement costs more than $40,000,” Sluka said. “It’s clear we lose money on parking, not that we need to make money; at best it should pay for itself.”

Main Street merchants oppose the increase.

The increase will work to the detriment of merchants on Main Street, according to Paul Sanford, president of the Somerville Business & Professional Association and proprietor of Sanford’s Jewelers on Main Street.

“The economy is so terrible,” Sanford said. “There are shop owners here who have tapped out their $100,000 line of credit just to keep going, trying to survive until the economy turns around, just to get that money back. I don’t think borough hall understands just how bad it is; we’re sitting here tapping out our life savings and now they want to scare away the few customers we have. Why not wait until things turn around, raise it then.”

Sanford and a handful of merchants attended the most recent meeting of the Borough Council, which received a recommendation from the Borough Parking & Traffic Committee to raise the overtime violation parking fine from $18 to $24. A petition opposing the proposed increase is being circulated by Randi Pitts, owner of Xpress Gear on Main Street.

The Borough Council directed Colin Driver, director of Economic Development, to consider the committee report and make his recommendation at the May 16 meeting, according to Mayor Brian Gallagher.

Somerville has not increased its fine for overtime parking since the early 1990s, according to Sluka.“At one point we made money on parking tickets,” Sluka explained.

However, New Jersey has levied a series of surcharges on all municipalities that cuts into any revenues generated by parking fines.

“It’s unfortunate the state has tacked on all these fees; we have no control over that,” Sluka said. “It’s been going on for years. It just seems like every year the state legislature comes up with another one.”

Sluka said the borough sends $11.50 from each $18 fine collected to Trenton to fund autism research, the police body armor replacement fund, spinal cord research, the brain injury fund and the state police Forensics Lab fund.

“Bottom line is, even if we were taking in the same amount in fines each, the costs are three times what they had been,” Sluka said.