The city handed out 13,000 fewer parking summonses and saw its ticket revenues nose-dive by $30 million last fiscal year — despite a record number of traffic agents on the street.

Downtrodden motorists too broke to pay their tickets are driving the sudden plummet in revenue, driver advocates theorized.

Motorists shelled out $624 million in parking fines in fiscal year 2008, compared to $595.7 million in fiscal year 2009.

City officials have a different theory about the 4.5 percent decline in revenue. Mayoral spokesman Stu Loeser says the city has made it easier for motorists to challenge their tickets online, and contested summonses generally garner reduced fines.

The number of tickets doled out by the city’s steadily swelling ranks of traffic agents declined by less than 1 percent.

There are 2,656 city traffic agents, up from the 2,527 in fiscal 2008 and only 1,900 in 2004. Yet that extra manpower scribbled 13,322 fewer tickets this year — 9,937,897 compared to 9,951,219 in fiscal year 2008.

(Source: NY Post)