PROVIDENCE -- State Treasurer Frank Caprio said today that he has given away about $30,000 of his own money to help people whose cars were tagged and towed during the massive traffic jams resulting from the snow storm Dec. 13.

He said he wrote about 70 checks of up to $100 today to people who lined up at Caserta Pizzeria, in his Federal Hill neighborhood, and produced their tickets and towing bills. He said he had also gone to towing companies since the storm to help people get their cars back so they could go to work.

The people who showed up were grateful.

"This is something," said Arlene Walker, a Pawtucket health service worker who works in Warwick and got a $100 ticket after her car was towed in Providence. "No one else offered to help anybody."

Caprio said he was paying their tickets and tow bills out of common decency.

"These people were playing by the rules," he said. "They were trying to get home" when they got stuck on the highway.

At least part of the problem, officials have been tacitly or explicitly admitting during the ensuing burst of outrage, was government disorganization leading to a less-than-terrific plowing job.

The event was a combination of a good deed, good organization and skillful politics. Caprio sat at a table writing checks to people, many of whose already-difficult lives had suddenly gotten worse. His staff, a combination of people from the treasurer's office -- working as volunteers, they said -- and his campaign organization created a computer database to record the beneficiaries, and also photographed and videotaped the event.

Caprio is considered a likely candidate for governor in three years. He was noncommittal about that today.

blandis@projo.com