How a Florida Woman Got a $100,000 Fine—For Parking on Her Own Property

There’s nothing worse than when you’re having a bad day and come back to your car to find a parking ticket on your windshield. Except, maybe, if that ticket was for $100,000, and you got it for parking on your own property. 

That’s what happened to Sandy Martinez, a resident of Lantana, Florida. Teaming up with attorneys at the libertarian-leaning Institute for Justice (IJ), she is suing the town over a parking violation fine assigned to her that totaled more than $100,000. When combined with two other infractions, the total the city wants to take from Martinez comes to an astounding $165,000. Her lawsuit argues that such excessive fines over such minor offenses violate the Florida state constitution, which “forbids fines that are ‘excessive’ or ‘shock the conscience,’’ according to IJ’s Ari Bargil. 

First round victory for Sandy Martinez, who is fighting her Florida town over a $100,000 parking violation. "It’s surreal that the town still refuses to admit that what it’s doing to me is abusive and unfair," says Sandy. Release here: https://t.co/LqWdv4Ipdj

— Institute for Justice (@IJ) July 12, 2021

Here’s the full backstory, as summarized by IJ: 

The $165,000 that Sandy owes is a result of daily fines that the city assessed for property code violations. Most of this amount is a result of the way Sandy’s family parks their cars. Sandy, her two adult children and her sister all own cars so that they can get to their jobs. When all four cars are parked in the driveway, sometimes one of them has two tires on the lawn, a $250 per day violation. And those fines continue to accrue until the homeowner corrects the problem and calls the city to inspect the property to confirm it is in compliance.

After receiving the parking violation, Sandy called the town like she was supposed to, but an inspector never came out. Once Sandy discovered that the fines were still accruing over a year later, she immediately called and passed the inspection. But by then, the amount she owed was $101,750. This fine is on top of fines for two other similarly trivial violations—for cracks in the driveway and a fence that fell over during a storm.

Basically, the woman was fined enormous sums by the city because cars parked on her own property touched grass. Yes, seriously. 

“It’s surreal that the town still refuses to admit that what it’s doing to me is abusive and unfair,” Martinez said. “Like everyone else in my neighborhood, I work hard for what I’ve got. I shouldn’t have to fight in court to stop the city from fining me into poverty.”

Indeed, she should not. We should all root for Martinez’s cause and denounce the city’s attempt to financially ruin homeowners over small things they do on their own property. Thankfully, Martinez’s case is off to a good start, with the Institute for Justice achieving a victory and having the city’s attempt to dismiss the suit refused by a state court. 

But, less fortunately, this story is just one incident in an alarming national trend. As an IJ report exposes, cities across the country levy punishing fines on their citizens to fill their coffers. The organization has fought similar injustices in parts of the country as diverse as California and Missouri. 

This story and its context are important to remember beyond just local municipal policy debates. It’s yet another reminder that while big government advocates insist the state will uplift the struggling, the actual implementation of its power often hurts those who can least afford it.

Like this story? Click here to sign up for the FEE Daily and get free-market news and analysis like this from Policy Correspondent Brad Polumbo in your inbox every weekday. 

Brad Polumbo

Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a libertarian-conservative journalist and Policy Correspondent at the Foundation for Economic Education.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

New Conservative Network Seeks Crowdfunding Help

They say we have to go big or go home. We’re trying to go big and bring the patriotic truth the the nation, but we need help.

Readers may or may not realize that over the past year, we’ve been bringing more conservative news and opinion outlets under our wing. Don’t take our expansion as a sign of riches; all of the “acquisitions” have been through sweat and promises of greater things to come for all involved. As a result, we’ve been able to bring together several independent media sites under a unified vision of preventing America from succumbing to the progressive, “woke,” Neo-Marxist ideologies that are spreading like wildfire across America.

The slow and steady reopening of America is revealing there was a lot more economic hardship brought about from the Covd-19 lockdowns than most realize. While we continue to hope advertising dollars on the sites go up, it’s simply not enough to do things the right way. We are currently experiencing a gap between revenue and expenses that cannot be overcome by click-ads and MyPillow promos alone (promo code “NOQ” by the way).

To overcome our revenue gap and keep these sites running, our needs fluctuate between $3000-$7000 per month. In other words, we’re in the red and hemorrhaging.

The best way you can help us grow and continue to bring the truth to the people is by donating. We appreciate everything, whether a dollar or $10,000. Anything brings us closer to a point of stability when we can hire writers, editors, and support staff to make the America First message louder. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well.

As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report and the other sites in the network going.

Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker

Bitcoin: 32SeW2Ajn86g4dATWtWreABhEkiqxsKUGn