Revenue from street fines surges. According to data available on Siope, the website of the public bodies' operations information system that depends on the Bank of Italy, the Municipality of Vicenza collected 20 percent more than the revenues in 2022. There was also a more modest increase in the entire Berica province.
Traffic Code
The portal allows viewing all items related to the revenues of public bodies. By delving into what the Municipality of Vicenza collected in 2023 under the item "Proceeds from fines and penalties for violations of the traffic code charged to families," it reads 6.2 million. The previous year, the coffers of Palazzo Trissino had instead counted on a contribution of 5.2 million euros. Expanding the search to all municipalities in the province, you can see how overall they collected 11.6 million, while the previous year's revenues had stopped at 10.9 million. In this case, the increase settled at 6.3 percent. This way, it is also possible to observe how the Municipality of Vicenza took 53 percent of the "cake" of the fines related to the Traffic Code issued last year. In short, among parking bans and speeding, every Vicentine resident in the capital paid an average of around 57 euros in 2023. A figure that significantly shrinks when looking at the entire province: each inhabitant in the province paid an average of 13.6 euros.
How to pay
The Municipality's website, updated as of December 4, 2023, comes to the aid of fined motorists. It reads: "For violations of the Traffic Code for which reduced payment is allowed, payment of the fine is permitted: within 5 days after the contestation or notification of the ticket, with a 30% discount on the minimum edict plus any investigation and notification expenses; from the 6th to the 60th day (note: not 2 months!) from the contestation or notification of the ticket with the amount of the minimum edict, without any reduction, plus investigation and notification expenses.".
Other Sanctions
But families are not fined only for violations of the Traffic Code, although the other amounts collected are not even remotely comparable. For example, there are revenues for violations of the administrative police code: meager "booty" for Palazzo Trissino, which last year collected 1,699 euros. And then there are generic other "Proceeds from other fines, penalties, and fines," which amount to just over 122,000 euros. It went even worse than in 2022 when around 157,000 euros had entered the municipal administration's purse. In the website associated with the Bank of Italy, an account is also given of the Municipality's revenue regarding taxes. The queen of taxes remains the IMU, the municipal property tax, which amounts to 27.2 million.
(GdV, martedì 20 febbraio)