Shocking Revenue Collected from Permits, Fines

PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Sales of parking permits to students and the collection of fines for parking violations has grossed well over $120,000 for Plymouth State College since September 1, 2002, according to a report presented to the PSC Parking Committee this past Wednesday. Complete parking revenue figures for the current year are not available because of the differing collection processes utilized by Plymouth State for citation payment.

For the privilege of parking on campus this academic year, 1,577 students paid $86,100 to The Permit Store; almost $20,000 more then roughly the same number of students paid the previous year (1,543 and $66,105, respectively). The Permit Store (http://www.thepermitstore.com), an online service specializing in the issuing of parking permits to various institutions, has issued all PSC parking permits since fall of 2001; a responsibility previously allotted to the PSC Campus Police.

When the procedure for the issuing of permits moved to an internet-based system, so too did the procedure for paying for violations of the PSC Parking Rules and Regulations policy (http://www.plymouth.edu/psc/cpolice/parking.htm). Once a citation is issued , the owner of the violating vehicle has thirty days to go the website of the State Collection Authority (http://scapay.com) and pay any outstanding fines. If after thirty days the citation remains unpaid, the fine doubles and is sent to the PSC bursar’s office for collection via campus billing.

Parking violations on the PSC campus carry fines ranging from ten dollars for a lot maintenance citation to one hundred dollars for “misuse of a permit.” When Plymouth State is in session, PSC Sergeant Michael Clark estimates that Campus Police issues, “between eighty to one hundred [parking tickets] a day.”

Since the beginning of fall semester, 8,015 citations have been issued by the PSC Campus Police Department . Of those, 915 were dismissed for various reasons and 1,878 were transferred to the bursar’s office for collection. The revenue raised by the tickets processed by bursar’s office is not yet available. However, the State Collection Authority working on behalf of Plymouth State has collected $41,155 to date, compared to $46,385 for all of last year.

Outgoing Parking Committee chairperson and PSC Police Chief John E. Clark, explained that the revenue collected from parking supports “salaries, shuttle expenses, parking lots…we designate one police vehicle to parking enforcement at two-thirds time…signage, and parking enforcement equipment [such as] computers.”

For the two internet-based services of permit issuance and citation collection, Plymouth State College is charged for the rental of ticket issuing equipment and incurs a once-yearly fee of $4.95 per permit. Students who purchased permits this year spent an average of $54.60 per permit. Faculty and staff receive their permits at no cost.

“We are seeing a considerable amount of compliance in regards to the purchase of permits, and I think that is primarily because we did increase the fine for not having a permit to fifty dollars,” said Sergeant Clark. “That got a lot of people’s attention.”

The PSC Parking Committee, made up of faculty, staff and students, meets several times a semester in HUB 119. All members of the PSC community are invited to attend.