Warning: Speeding, Parking Tickets go up as a Source of Government Revenue

Drivers beware, heftier fines are coming. Faced with rising deficits and dwindling revenues, many states and local municipalities are turning to increased traffic and parking fines to fill their coffers –and politicians love voting for them instead of more visable tax increases.

For example, in California, the cost of a "fix-it ticket" more than tripled in the past 2 years, meaning that drivers in the Golden State can pay up to $100 for having a broken headlight — an infraction that didn't even garner a citation years ago. A bills approved by the state Legislature the last 3 years have raised fix-it fines and hiked surcharges on regular traffic tickets. Parking tickets and court costs to attend traffic school also increased.

Motorists in Pensacola, Florida saw fines for parking in front of a fire hydrant or in a fire lane skyrocket from $10 to $100 — a 900 percent increase — after the city's Downtown Improvement Board unanimously approved the hike. Statewide, speeding fines also increased, along with an increase of $25 for exceeding the speed limit by 15 to 29 miles per hour.

Many law enforcement agencies state clearly and for the record that they do not engage in a “quota system”. I can tell you from my days as a cop (some spent working traffic) that is purposefully misleading. I had a sergeant who regularly complained that I was giving out too many warnings and not enough tickets. His repeated admonishment was that since the department got up to 60% of the revenue from the tickets, I was costing him pay raises by being “Mr. Nice Guy”.

Not long ago, in the Boston suburb of Malden, Mass., Police Chief Kenneth Coye urged officers to bring in revenue for the cash-strapped suburb by writing at least one parking or traffic ticket per shift. "We need to increase enforcement in areas that create revenue … write 'ONE TAG A DAY,'" Coye told officers in a memo obtained and reported by the Boston Herald. In that example Coye said tickets are crucial to maintaining quality of life.

According to a study in Journal of Law and Economics, local governments like Malden use traffic citations to bridge budget shortfalls. Researchers Thomas Garrett and Gary Wagner examined revenue and traffic citation data from 1990 to 2003 in 96 counties in North Carolina, and they discovered that the number of citations issued increases in years that follow a drop in revenue (surprise).

They got the idea for the study when Garrett, assistant vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, got an exorbitant ticket for speeding in Pennsylvania. Garrett likened traffic violations to a "hidden tax," like hotel occupancy taxes, that can easily be passed on to out-of-state tourists. "When times are tough, it's often harder to increase revenue through traditional means like increasing sales and property taxes," Garrett said. "And traffic tickets certainly fit that bill."

Critics complain that whereas property taxes are proportionally tied to property values, motorist fines are flat taxes that have a harder impact on lower-income drivers; the laborer going 80 mph in a 12-year-old Kia pays the same fine as the trust-fund heir going 80 in his brand-new Ferrari.

But the tickets generate needed municipal income, and that's why they're on the rise. Wagner, a professor at the University of Arkansas Little Rock, said there is a "significant correlation" between revenue and the number of citations. "We don't know that someone's actually been told to go out and issue tickets for revenue (no, but I do), but if police are incentivized to step up enforcement, that naturally results in more tickets," Wagner said. "More tickets were issued when revenues declined."

The study, "Red Ink in the Rearview Mirror: Local Fiscal Conditions and the Issuance of Traffic Tickets," also found no significant drop in tickets when revenues rebounded (again, any surprise there?).

Wagner and Garrett said there's no reason to believe the findings don't apply elsewhere. "The incentives aren't just in North Carolina, it could apply anywhere," Garrett said. "The results pretty much speak for themselves."

Bonnie Sesolak, development director of the National Motorists Association, said the study backs years of anecdotal evidence. "It's been no secret that municipalities have always tried to fill their coffers from traffic citations," she said. "Once that money starts flowing in, it's really hard to cut it off."

While recognizing the need for traffic enforcement, Sesolak said the increased focus on issuing citations could spread officers thin in some areas. "They're making lawbreakers out of people who normally aren't," she said. "Their manpower could be better spent in other areas." And the trend could further disenfranchise low-income drivers who receive the same fine as drivers in higher salary brackets, she said. "If they can't afford to pay their fine, they're still going to get to work to feed their families," Sesolak said. "They're going to drive regardless."

Barbara Anderson, executive director of Massachusetts' Citizens for Limited Taxation, said she found Police Chief Coye's memo "disturbing" and questioned why local police officers hadn't been issuing tickets with proper discretion all along. "It's disturbing when you come to realize that laws many of us try to obey are not being upheld in any predictable way," Anderson said. "So then you ask, who does get picked on? What makes the decision when you're going to enforce the law?"

The American Trucking Associations, which represents more than 37,000 members, said its drivers back efforts to enforce traffic laws. "But legitimate law enforcement reasons, not revenue needs, should determine the nature and extent of those efforts," a statement from ATA read (and this is something I completely agree with).

Meanwhile, Dennis Slocumb, vice president of the International Union of Police Associations, said he was unaware of any "concerted effort" by law enforcement officers to write more tickets during tough financial times. "The IUPA remains opposed to any type of ticket quotas that might be considered by state or municipal employees as an effort to increase public revenue," a statement by Slocumb read. He is either living in a dream world or was being purposefully misleading!

Moving violations aside, more than a dozen states are considering giving police officers the authority to pull over motorists solely for not wearing their seatbelts. The states — including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia had to pass a bill with the governor's approval to be eligible for millions in federal money.

Ohio, which is facing billions in budget deficit in 2009, received $26.8 million for enacting primary seat-belt enforcement laws to match those of 26 states and the District of Columbia.

Personally, I think enforcing traffic laws is important, but to me the most important thing is preventing accidents by that enforcement. Unfortunately, that purpose is not what our law makers now have in mind. They see dollars signs on our streets and cars -and they are getting away with it because the public has so far remained mostly silent about it.

 Live Long and Prosper....