From the Daily News:The smartboot may soon be slapped on cars in a neighborhood near you.By next week, the Bloomberg administration will likely give the go-ahead for a private company named PayLock to place new-age tire boots on any car whose owner has accumulated $350 or more of unpaid tickets.Finance Department workers have been feverishly rewriting computer codes on the agency’s customer payment website for months to have the new system ready to go by Tuesday.Agency spokesman Owen Stone said Thursday the initial rollout in some pilot areas will begin soon after, but declined to say when.Finance Commissioner David Frankel told the City Council last month that the new system will “facilitate debt collection while also reducing inconvenience to motorists.”But internal agency documents obtained by the Daily News show motorists will be smacked with the same — or even higher — fees than under the current towing system just to shake loose the contraption, known as the SmartBoot.
