NYC revenue from fines, fees rises, city comptroller says

Revenue from fines and fees in New York City jumped more than 13 percent over a four-year span, totaling $1.9 billion in the fiscal year 2015, according to a report released Thursday by City Comptroller Scott Stringer.

The city collected about $957 million in penalties, with more than 59 percent of that figure coming from parking tickets, the analysis found.

Fees, meanwhile, accounted for $974 million in revenue, and the largest source was City University of New York tuition.

Some trends in the time period — fiscal year 2012 to fiscal year 2015, which ended last June 30 — were reflective of policies Mayor Bill de Blasio adopted after taking office in January 2014.

Stringer’s report revealed a 41 percent hike in traffic-camera revenue. Within that category, big boosts came from a 15-fold increase in school zone speed cameras as well as a 117 percent jump in the issuance of bus lane camera violations. About $77 million in camera-related fines was collected in fiscal year 2015.

The cameras are integral to de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative to reduce traffic deaths and injuries, the comptroller’s office said.

The restaurant industry, meanwhile, enjoyed a break.

Though there was a brief spike in penalties after the restaurant letter-grading system was implemented in 2010 and city Department of Health inspections were ramped up, de Blasio’s 2014 “small business relief” initiative helped fines drop 38 percent in the four-year period to $33 million in fiscal year 2015, Stringer’s report showed.

“The changes and fluctuations in fees for both Vision Zero and businesses, including restaurants, correlate with the city’s goals for limiting traffic injuries and fatalities and alleviating the strain of regulation for the city’s businesses,” de Blasio spokesman Austin Finan said in a statement.