CORRECTION RAN WEDNESDAY (7/2/03)
The new penalty for a parking ticket in Rochester is $8, and the old penalty was $5. The penalties were incorrect in a story Tuesday on Page 2B.
------------------------------------------------------------ From staff reports
Two new state laws affecting city government take effect in Rochester today. The effects of one will be immediately felt; the other might not be felt for some time.
The parking tickets that city officers write will, starting today, include a new $3 state surcharge. That will increase the price of a parking violation to $7, from $4.
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City officials decried the increase during the legislative session this spring, saying that the city, not the state, would be blamed for increasing ticket penalties and that the state's decision limited cities' ability to raise ticket penalties themselves as a way to increase revenues.
Another legislative decision, to extend bar closing times to 2 a.m., will not have an immediate effect here.
Rochester's ordinance, which closes bars at 1 a.m., takes precedence over state law because it is more restrictive. The city council must revise the ordinance to enact a 2 a.m. closing time.
City Administrator Steve Kvenvold sent a letter last week to bar license-holders asking whether the council should approve a later closing time. The response so far has been pretty evenly split, he said.
The council will discuss the issue at a Committee of the Whole meeting next month, Kvenvold said.
