Just outside the nation's capital, Fairfax County, Virginia depends heavily on motorists to prop up its annual budget. Speed traps help generate $7.7 million in revenue through the courts and another $3.1 million from parking citations. In a quarterly report to the board of supervisors, the county Office of Financial and Program Audit (OFPA) raised the alarm that meter maids have not sufficiently productive.
"The decline in parking citations is also reflected in the traffic division's parking enforcement budget measures," the audit report explained. "Specifically, the traffic division parking unit's budget performance measures decreased from 504 tickets per 10,000 registered vehicles in 2006 to 298.4 tickets per 10,000 registered vehicles in 2011. We also noted an overall $175,389 decrease in parking ticket revenues from $3,304,380 in 2006 to $3,128,991 in 2011. The potential reduction in parking ticket revenues related to the decrease in citations was mitigated by the increase in parking fines and expanded parking ordinances in fiscal year 2010."
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