Created: 8/19/2009 4:39:47 PM 
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Park at any meter in downtown Jacksonville, and chances are if your car is there long enough, you will get a ticket.
"I just came out here 20 minutes ago to put more money in the meter, and I got a ticket for 15 dollars," says C.J. Chaplin, a visitor from Virginia.
Chaplin says he was shocked, but he shouldn't be. More green slips are sitting on windshields these days.
"We're looking at a difference of one thousand citations overall," says Bob Carle, the Division Chief for Parking Enforcement.
Carle says from January through July, 2008, there were 26,000 parking tickets issued.
This year, the number tops 27,000. At $15 a pop, that's an extra $15,000 in revenue for the City.
"We filled some vacancies that we had open for a couple of months just recently." Carle says it's all because the department has three more officers on patrol.
But some think the extra tickets are an effort by the City to collect extra cash in the current budget crunch. "They're trying to make up the difference," says Chaplin.
The City says that is not the case. "Absolutely not. Parking enforcement is parking enforcement regardless of what the budget times are."
Carle says the 1,000 ticket difference is not significant. He also says the paper slips are just all about clearing up spaces for visitors to Downtown. "Enforcement is for the purpose of turning over parking. Seriously, that's all it is for."
C.J. Chaplin's spot is now clear. He's on his way back to Virginia and trying to figure out how he is going to pay the price for staying a little too long in Jacksonville. "I'll mail it in or something because I'm leaving today."
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