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Traffic Agents Cash In Big With Ticket Blitz
By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 3, 2009
Modified Aug 3, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Aug 3, 2009
Modified Aug 3, 2009
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Some New Yorkers love the city's spike in parking summonses: the traffic enforcement agents who get paid to write the tickets. A New York Times review of city records found that more than 700 agents increased their wages by 20 percent with overtime in the 2008 fiscal year. Others raised their pay by over 50 percent, and one workaholic even doubled his income. In all, the city coughed up $13 million in overtime pay to traffic agents, on top off $68 million in regular pay. In return, traffic agents generated $578.6 million in revenues for the city in FY08, up from $366.6 million in 2002. One interesting fact in the article; according to NYPD spokesman Paul Browne, construction sites that disrupt street traffic reimburse the city for the cost of traffic agent overtime. But some critics, like Carol Kellerman of the Citizens Budget Commission, think the city should limit overtime because it obscures "what work force is needed to do the job and what it is being paid." On the other hand, union president James Huntley explains that traffic agents have an insatiable hunger for OT, and "if you take it from them, they might cry."
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overtime
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parking summons
tickets
traffic agents
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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