Pay Up! City set to collect $40 million in restaurant fines
Being unsanitary in New York City is costly. Very costly. Restaurant owners who get low grades from city health inspectors are going to be laying out approximately $40 million in fines this year, according to an estimate by New York’s health commissioner. And now the city wants to collect.
Dr. Thomas Farley told City Council members at a budget hearing on May 28 that revenue from health-related fines levied against restaurants would hit $40 million this year. But that’s a drop from previous years, officials said.
It’s still too much, Councilman David Greenfield (D-Borough Park-Bensonhurst) charged. Greenfield told Farley that he has received numerous complaints from restaurant owners in his council district who said that the inspections and the fines are too much.