Butkovitz: Unpaid fines an ‘ongoing problem’ in Philadelphia

Philadelphia City Controller Alan Butkovitz has released yet another report detailing the city’s financial shortcomings.

This one shows as of the end of fiscal year 2010, the cty was owed more than $70 million for unpaid fines for things like trash, sanitation and false burglar alarms violations. Unpaid fines for those types of violations increased by 38 percent between fiscal years 2008 and 2010.
Comparitively, the city issued 400,000 fewer tickets for these violations in fiscal years 2009 and 2010, but collected $1.5 million more.

Butkovitz called the unpaid fines an “ongoing problem,” and recommends the city deny or make null permits for violators with unpaid fines.