Through June of this year the town of Fort Myers Beach has collected just under $1.6 million in fines and parking revenue from residents and visitors. That 9 month total is already more than any full year of Beach and Street Patrol revenue dating back to 2013.
The responsibility of Beach and Street Patrol, also known as B.A.S.E., is to enforce town ordinances and write tickets for parking violations.
In March of this year, a record $286,598 was collected. The second biggest month of fines collected was April of this year, coming in at $247,310. And right behind April was May, coming in 3rd with $206,000. Before this year, there wasn’t a single month that exceeded $175,000.
To put the fine revenue growth into even more perspective, back in 2013, the total revenue collected for the year was $489,234. March and April of 2022 combined for more than that entire year. Of course, the town has raised the fine amounts levied since then and increased the cost to park.
With July, August and September still to go in the fiscal year, it’s not out of the question that the town could bring in $2 million in revenue from fines. That would be an increase of nearly $500,000 from 2021.
* This article was updated to make clear the total also includes parking revenue.
These numbers from 2013-2022 should be separated. Show parking revenue/fines separately. Then, the number of BASE employees for each year should be shown at bottom.
I’ve contributed to that dollar amount. You are welcome. I helped pay for the parking app that will garner me more fines. Awesome. Next up, fines for tint, turtles, loud music, signs, and anything else the town deems worthy of cashing in on. Welcome to the beach, now have fun!!
FMB has some of the most heavy handed government in the US. There nasty, they want there money soo look out.
The addition of parking revenue negates the narrative the headline of the article. Next time update the headline too because it is very misleading.
Welcome to FMB—the fine revenue capital of Florida! It doesn’t have the friendly and laid-back feel to it. I would rather live and visit a place with a better reputation.
It would be interesting to know how these dollars break out into specific categories. Also would be interesting to know what B.A.S.E. attributes these increases to versus what they were doing in the past. Are they truly violations that were overlooked in the past or simply a result of an overzealous patrol?
I got parking tickets on 2 different occasions, and I have a valid resident’s parking pass!!! I didn’t have to pay the fine, but how hard is it to look at the sticker to see it’s not expired?
The Town Council is transparent for sure, no criticism there, but BTR flushes out all sorts of stories most of us would never know.