MILWAUKEE — Sen. Lena Taylor is calling for the City of Milwaukee to suspend towing, ticketing and debt collection during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taylor said that the city should mirror other cities' measures of "financially minimizing harm to residents during this public health crisis."
“In neighboring Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has announced that debt collection and citations for things like parking violations have been temporarily suspended. Obviously, we don’t want traffic and street access impeded, but we can make common sense decisions about if and when a ticket should be issued," said Taylor in a release. "As businesses close and residents are increasingly staying home, we know that for some, lack of money will be factor. Additionally, we have the ability to suspend towing of vehicles with 3 or more citations until we get a grasp on the financial fallout from COVID-19."
Taylor said that residents would likely be parking their cars for longer periods of the day due to telework situations, job layoffs or closings of business. Neighborhoods with two-hour parking during the day should have the rules suspended, according to Taylor.
"Similar to Chicago, we could delay assessment of penalty (ticket doubling) and adopt other measures that could reduce the financial hardship of city residents during this period," said Taylor.