Received a parking ticket in Paterson and have yet to dole out the cash to the city? Things could get very ugly. This week the city is to hire a collection agency that will go after delinquent individuals: those that received parking tickets, moving violation tickets, and court fines, but have not paid them to the city.

It has been said that payment delinquency has caused the city a loss of 7+ million dollars. If the full amount is collected it could result in a budget surplus; at present the city faces an 8m dollar hole which it has to figure out how to fill, so far it has simply passed the burden onto property owners, which if this year’s tax appeals protest was any indication could backfire.

Collecting unpaid fines from individuals that have little or no interest in paying them will certainly help the city’s finance while at the same time sending a message to those that are delinquent that the city is serious about the fines.