VIDEO: Handicap Violator Penalty Increase Proposed

Temporary placards that enable drivers to park in parking spaces set aside for the disabled are being abused. Travis County Constable Bruce Elfant is asking the Legislature to double the fine.

In one sweep recently, Elfant’s deputies wrote 22 handicapped parking tickets around the Texas State Capitol Complex. Twenty of those tickets were written to state employees; all were using another person’s handicap parking pass. Elfant estimated that currently, the City of Austin is losing $500,000 a year in meter revenue due to the fraudulent parking.

Elfant has worked on behalf of people with disabilities for over a decade.  In 1995, Elfant’s office created a Citizen Handicap Parking Enforcement Program to help ensure that handicap parking spaces would be available to those who need them.

However, handicap parking violations are as prevalent as ever. Elfant’s deputies consistently spot fraudulent handicap parking tags and drivers who are utilizing another person’s handicap sticker in order to park closer to work and job sites.

“If you've got one of these, it's a commodity. You get to park for free if you don't get caught," Elfant said, while showing a series of fake parking tags his office has collected.

In a press conference organized by Elfant and several people with disabilities advocacy groups, Elfant discussed the importance of increasing handicap parking penalties in order to discourage the behavior.

“Until the penalty for using grandma’s or somebody else’s placards exceeds the cost of parking, state employees and others will continue to take their chances on getting caught, while denying access for whom these spaces were intended,” Elfant said.

And that's not fair to the people who need those spaces, including Austin Resident Tanya Winters, who serves on the Austin Mayor's Committee For People With Disabilities.

"Think to yourself, before you park in an accessible space... you're not only taking a parking space. You're affecting a person with a disabilities' opportunity to participate in life," Winters said.

To help solve the problem, Elfant worked with State Senator Judith Zaffirini and State Rep. Patricia Harless on a set of bills that would increase penalties for fraudulently using a handicap parking space.

Currently, a person who illegally parks in a handicap spot must pay a fine of $250 to $500. The original Senate Bill 52 would have increased first-time penalties to between $500 and $750. The current bill increases penalties only for repeat offenders.

"We want the fine increased so the first time you get this, you really don't want to go back for seconds," Elfant said.

County officials can contact their state representatives and ask them to restore first-time penalties to HB 3095.