Photo by maxedaperture

A day short of the end of an amnesty program under which drivers with two-year-old tickets can pay up without the usual penalties, Virginia and Maryland drivers remain in arrears to the District for hundreds of millions of dollars.

According to WTOP, the ticket amnesty, which has been in effect since August, has taken in $3.5 million worth of unpaid tickets dating back before 2010. Still, drivers from our two closest neighbors still owe over $140 million for close to three million tickets for parking violations, moving violations and traffic camera violations.

Maryland drivers are easily the worst offenders, owing the District over $88 million for 1.7 million tickets, or 37 percent of all tickets covered by the amnesty. Virginia trails with $53 million owed for 1.1 million tickets, while D.C. residents are overdue on $40 million for 795,000 tickets. All told, the amnesty covered $233 million worth of tickets.

Why is this a big deal? Well, unlike what Maryland and Virginia can do to D.C. drivers who don’t pay tickets they get there, the city doesn’t have the capacity to go after non-local drivers who rack up tickets put don’t bother to pay them. Hence the amnesty. The D.C. Council is still in the midst of debating legislation that would allow the city to consolidate its debt collection duties and go after non-residents with unpaid tickets.