New York city quality of life offenders get a break

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City will forgive late fees for so-called quality of life violations for a three-month period starting this autumn, provided small businesses and residents can show the problems are being fixed, the Council Speaker said on Thursday.

The Environmental Control Board, an administrative body that rules on noncriminal offenses from potholes to graffiti, is owed about $200 million in such fines, Democratic Speaker Christine Quinn said in a statement.

"These fines can drag a business down, while the City only sees pennies on the dollar," she said.

Default penalties and interest also will be waived under a bill that will soon be filed. Quinn said Mayor Michael Bloomberg agreed to the program.

In January, Bloomberg, who is seeking a third-term, focused on stamping out quality of life offenses to guard the city from revisiting the 1970s, when grafitti-scrawled subways symbolized the crime-ridden city.

A mayoral spokesman was not immediately available to comment on whether Bloomberg's crackdown or the recession has driven any spike in the late payments of fines.

Separately, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said a 10 percent drop in violent crimes in the current school year defied pessimists' projections that "in the face of economic turmoil" crime would rise throughout the city.

"They were wrong then; they are wrong now," Kelly said at a news conference with the mayor. Murders are down 18 percent this year over last year, Kelly said.

Quinn said the mayor accepted another two of her small business boosting programs: creating a panel to winnow out outdated or unneeded agency rules and regulations that impede enterprises, and coordinating inspections of businesses by different agencies that will share information.

(Reporting by Joan Gralla)