AUSTIN, Texas — For many downtown drivers, it is a closely followed ritual: Pay for parking at a city meter or risk a ticket.
But the KVUE Defenders found that Austin is owed millions in unpaid parking tickets from tens of thousands of delinquent cases. It comes as city officials just hiked the price of parking tickets and as Mayor Kirk Watson is warning about tough budget decisions ahead.
So is the city doing enough to collect the money?
Most cities, including Austin, have policies and procedures for disabling cars with outstanding parking tickets. But we found the city of Austin hasn’t been following those policies – rarely using one of its biggest tools to get scofflaws to pay.
“You would expect members of the community to feel obligated to follow the law,” said Kim Wingard, deputy Austin Municipal Court clerk.
Each year, the city’s 53 mobility services officers issue tens of thousands of tickets to those who didn’t pay or whose meters expired. The city collects an average of $2.8 million annually from parking ticket revenue. That goes into its general fund, which pays for day-to-day operations and services. Municipal court records show the city of Austin is owed about $7.4 million in unpaid parking fees for the past five years – with the amount of delinquent fees increasing 223 percent since 2020. Of the 672,000 issued in that period, about a quarter remain unpaid.
The number one offender on the scofflaw list owes more than $13,000 for 255 unpaid parking tickets. The second highest – nearly $7,000 for 155 tickets.
“Speaking from a court employee, our process is to follow the process of the law and to provide those penalties,” Wingard said.
We wondered how someone could rack up so many tickets without getting their car getting disabled by a boot. The city’s parking ordinance states that vehicles should be immobilized if the owner has three or more outstanding parking tickets. But that’s not happening often.
“Booting is one of those down the list priority for us, but we still do it,” said Joe Al-hajeri, parking enterprise manager for the city’s transportation and public works department, which is responsible for installing boots.
Due to a software issue that has since been fixed, the city’s municipal court issued just 36 boot notices in the past three years. During that time, the amount of unpaid parking tickets rose dramatically along with the number of cars eligible for booting. Of 4,000 cars eligible, records show the city booted just 246.
“At the end of the day, the first priority is our day to day operations of our mobility system and safety,” Al-hajeri said. “That is not a key priority for us at the time, but we do have that as a job requirement.”
Meanwhile, the city does report delinquent car owners to a collection agency for unpaid tickets after six months, but that agency does not report them to creditor bureaus.
These revelations come as the Austin City Council in February raised the standard fee for unpaid parking or an expired meter from $30 to $75 and as Mayor Kirk Watson is already warning about budget woes ahead for the city.
Failure for drivers to pay for parking tickets is not only an Austin problem. San Antonio is owed $6 million for the past five years. Houston is owed a staggering $43 million in the past five years. Smaller cities struggle too but are finding new ways to collect.
San Marcos recently introduced “the Barnacle” for enforcing unpaid parking violations. It’s an immobilization device that enforcement officers attach to a car’s windshield, making it undriveable until the owner resolves outstanding parking fines.
On the street in downtown Austin, drivers we found say even though enforcement is lax, they plan to keep paying.
Jessica Weegar, who was feeding a meter downtown during a lunch break, said: “I am just like — my parents instilled in me, if you get a ticket, you should pay it. If you messed up, you should own it.”