Bill proposed to allow restricting license for those with three unpaid parking tickets; citations at CMU do not affect driving record

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A new bill could make it easier to impose sanctions on drivers with unpaid parking tickets.

If a Michigan driver has six or more unpaid parking tickets, they could have trouble getting their license renewed, or have to pay more for it. Approved by the State House of Representatives in January, the bill, now in the Senate, would lower that number to three unpaid tickets.

Assistant City Manager Nancy Ridley said Mount Pleasant does deal with parking tickets, but the number left unpaid isn’t overwhelming.

“As of the end of December, 2011 our records show that we have approximately 4,800 tickets unpaid,” she said. “This is from a total of 93,800 tickets that have been issued since Jan. 1, 2000.”

That translates into a little more than 5 percent of the total remaining unpaid.

The tickets that do get paid provide a substantial portion of revenue.

“The amount of revenue the city collects from parking fines each year is approximately $110,000 city-wide,” she said.

Luckily for many Central Michigan University students, Parking Services Specialist Dori Foster said parking tickets from CMU Parking Enforcement do not count toward a person’s driving record.

“Not with us,” Foster said. “Tickets stay strictly with parking services. We don’t deal with the Secretary of State. It doesn’t go on your driving record at all.”

These parking tickets still have some power if left unpaid on a student account, she said.

“If they go on your student account, you have to pay them to be able to register for classes, or graduate,” she said. “If you owed $15, that would need to be paid.”

Davison sophomore Aubrey Moore said she has never had a parking ticket outside of the school.

“At school I’ve probably gotten like four, but I’ve gotten out of two and only had to pay two,” Moore said.

Moore doesn’t leave her tickets unpaid, taking care of them all within a week or two, she said.

“I never got a parking ticket outside of school,” Moore said. “I’m sure I would pay it right away anyway, even if the law changed for it.”