The meta political discussion is more to address the point that the OP made that parking tickets as a revenue source are a "social ill, full stop". It is hard f

The meta political discussion is more to address the point that the OP made that parking tickets as a revenue source are a "social ill, full stop". It is hard for me to believe that parking revenue should not be allowed to be used to offer services to the citizens of a municipality if there is adequate political oversight. If you feel the parking money is misappropriated or downright being fraudulently collected to raise revenue, this is an issue that local elected officials are designated to deal with. If you feel that is not being done, that is what the political process is for. I am not saying that this does not occur, I am saying that there is recourse and that its occurrence does not rule out the use of parking fines as a revenue source everywhere without exception. As to point 2, I am sure there are municipalities that work like that, just that I know of none and that the article is a bit flimsy. I don't disbelieve that what you say occurs does, but I do believe that if there's an issue, it should be uncovered by a careful audit.