NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Cities across the United States are squeezing extra blood from a reliable old stone: parking fines, and revenues from them, have soared.

Cities from coast to coast are jacking up prices on parking tickets and tracking down those who don't pay. CNNfn's Jen Rogers reports. Play video (Real or Windows Media)

As reported from Los Angeles by CNNfn correspondent Jen Rogers, parking law violators have absorbed the twin body blows of steep leaps in parking fine rates and in late charges.

"The major cities have all found parking tickets a great way to increase revenue without calling it a tax," said Glen Bolofsky, who started parkingticket.com to help motorists fight parking tickets.

In addition to raising rates and fees, the municipalities have cracked down on deadbeat drivers, instituting tougher collection standards and going hard after the worst scofflaws.

New York, where blocks of midtown Manhattan feature signs that read (in the native vernacular) "Don't even think of parking here!" raised many parking fines shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center, when the city faced billion-dollar budget shortfalls.

Paying for illegal parking Many cities have hiked parking fines to help fill budget gaps. They usually assess the stiffest fines to those miscreants who park in areas reserved for the disabled. City  Fines for: parking in a handicapped space  At a fire hydrant  At an expired meter  New York  $180  $115  $65  Los Angeles  $355  $40  $35  Chicago  $150  $100  $30  Houston  $205  $100  $25  Philadelphia  $300  $40  $20  Detroit  $100  $30  $20  San Francisco  $275  $50  $40  Washington  $250  $50  $25  Hudson, NC (pop. 3,196)  $5  $5  $5   Sources:  Various city Websites and parking violations bureaus

A typical fine in Manhattan now can make your wallet $65 lighter. Parking at a fire hydrant or bus stop will run $115. The city's parking violations bureau expects to collect $562 million this year, up 48 percent from 2002.

Los Angeles will collect $110 million in 2004, up 20 percent from two years ago. Angelenos endure some of the highest fines in the country; parking illegally in a disabled persons zone can draw a whopping $355 fine.

Another beneficiary of higher parking fines is Chicago. Revenue has climbed 28 percent from 2002 to $141 million. But it is not just the big cities bleeding motorists; nearly half of all U.S. cities hiked fines or fees last year. The cities claim the added revenues help keep vital services – police, fire, ambulance, parks and recreation, libraries, even street services – running.

Enforcing parking laws also keeps streets safer and traffic moving, they say, apparently hoping that recipients of fines keep in mind that it's all in the public interest.

That's hard to remember when you're the one being handed the ticket.