Metro

City to street-vendor scofflaws: Have we got a deal for you

These guys know how to drive a bargain.

The City Council is in talks with the savviest hagglers in town — street peddlers — in an effort to get them to pay their fines, The Post has learned.

Legislation quietly introduced this month by Councilman Stephen Levin (D-Brooklyn) would lower the maximum penalties for non-health-related summonses to $250 to encourage the sidewalk food and merchandise vendors to pay up.

“As it is now, if you are getting multiple fines of $1,000, it’s particularly onerous and very difficult to get out from underneath this debt,” Levin said. “We want to have vendors licensed and know who they are and what they are up to.”

Between fiscal years 2008 and 2009, the city issued $15.8 million in fines to peddlers but collected just $900,000.

As The Post reported last month, many vendors say they have no intention of ever paying. Often, they let their licenses expire because of the debt and continue to operate using licenses of others.

A related bill introduced by Levin will prevent compounding of unpaid fines that raises the cost of penalties the longer they go unpaid and can quickly leave a vendor deep in debt. Keeping fines from rising would hopefully get more vendors to pay up, he said.

The bills, which are supported by the Urban Justice Center’s Street Vendor Project, already have 15 co-sponsors and will be discussed in hearings next year, Levin said.

It can’t come too soon for hot-dog vendor Taimur Rahman, 39, who usually sells his snacks at the corner of East 30th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Two weeks ago, he got two $500 tickets for allegedly operating too far from the curb.

“This is a hard job,” he said. “I’m here outside in the cold and in the rain, and now tickets, too. Fifty dollars or $100 is one thing, but $1,000 is a lot of money for me.”

Levin said the next step to reforming the complex vendor rules is dealing with the scofflaws who are giving their law-abiding rivals a bad name.

chuck.bennett@nypost.com