"When I saw the person on TV, the top offender, laughing, that was like the ultimate insult," State Representative Ron Waters said.
Waters is referring to Pennsburg businessman Bob Faraco, seen exclusively on Action News scoffing at the $40,000 he owes in unpaid tickets. Now, days after Faraco's name appeared atop the list of the city's worst non-paying parking offenders, these lawmakers want to fix the flaw that lets Faraco and others get away without having to pay.
"A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, legislation had its roots and origins in common sense. I don't believe there's any no more blaring example of that than this," State Representative Bill Keller said.
In a letter to the state Department of Transportation, citing our investigation, the lawmakers call for an examination of what they call clear abuse of the system, tag swapping schemes thought to be costing the city millions. They're demanding PennDOT to fix the fraud, saying, if they don't:
"We're certainly willing to put it in statue that they can't release new tags if there's unpaid parking tickets on a current tag," State Representative John Taylor said.
PennDOT says it relies on information from the PPA, suspending registrations once a certain number of tickets are reported as unpaid. Earlier this week, we showed you the list of the top 25 ticket scofflaws, since that report, New Century Travel, number 5 on the list, cut a check for $30,000.