NYS traffic ticket question

I was just talking to my Father and grandfather about a ticket my grandfather just paid.

He received the summons only recently for running a red light back in 1997 and claims he never received any summons way back then. So he went in and explained it, not to a judge but some other official who immediately acknowledged that he understood (as if my gf was apparently not the only one suddenly being notified of a very old violation) and it ended up being a $50 ticket.

I told my gf that it seemed a pretty good deal. I mean, they could’ve charged a great deal more in late fees, so it seemed pretty fair to me.

My Dad maintains that they never actually believed that he didn’t recieve the summons, but rather are waiving all the late fees on these old tickets to encourage people to come in and pay because the city needs money so badly right now.

Is the state actually doing this? It seems that they’d stand to get a lot more money if they found some more efficient way to get people to pay their owed fines, including all the late fees, rather than simply suspending their liscense (which far too many people simply ignore, gambling that they won’t have a run in with the law anyway).

Does the state have any other recourse besides suspending a liscense for overdue fines?