Posted on 01/06/2009 1:50:12 PM PST by BGHater
The economist got a speeding ticket, and it got him thinking about why.
Thomas A. Garrett, an assistant vice president at the St. Louis Federal Reserve, knew he deserved to be ticketed while on vacation in Pennsylvania a few years ago. But, he wondered, are traffic tickets purely about public safety? Or are other factors at play? Many motorists probably have wondered the same thing sitting on a highway shoulder waiting for a citation. But Garrett turned it into a scholarly pursuit. He decided to conduct a study.
What Garrett and a co-author discovered provides yet another reason to hate a recession.
Traffic tickets go up significantly when local government revenue falls, they found. Their study showed for the first time evidence of how "local governments behave, in part, as though traffic tickets are a revenue tool to help offset periods of fiscal distress."
No surprise, some ticketed motorists might say. But Garrett and co-author Gary A. Wagner, an economist at the University of Arkansas Little Rock, say they confirmed a connection that seemed to exist only in isolated anecdotes. And they put a number on it: Controlling for other factors, a 1 percentage point drop in local government revenue leads to a roughly .32 percentage point increase in the number of traffic tickets in the following year, a statistically significant connection.
So in the middle of a recession, with almost all cities and counties facing falling sales and property taxes, "you would expect more traffic tickets," Garrett said from his office in downtown St. Louis.
"When things are bad," Garrett explained, "traffic tickets go up."
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
As Christmas and New Years Eve were over, I was wondering what was up and casually mentioned to my husband, who had been pulled over in our city and given a "warning" ticket, that I was assuming with the so-called "revenue short falls" the govt. officials were attempting to beef up one sure-fire way, traffic tickets.
A motorist should be required to burn money in the presence of a couple of witnesses, instead of paying the money in a fine. This would remove the incentive for the state to use these fines to boost revenue.
This is why falling property values are a good thing. It will force local communities to break the cops strangle holds on the budgets. It will destroy their pension systems, hopefully anyway. Could not happen to a more courteous bunch.
I saw the mother of all speed traps the other day. There must have been 25 cars pulled over waiting for tickets. I don’t know where the radar was, but they had about 6 police cruisers pulling cars over, then they’d send them to a central ticketing area.
My kid got a speeding ticket the other day. He was going about 11 miles over the speed limit. Cost of the ticket $208.00. I look at it as a good thing for him. He’s 20 and $208 puts a pinch in his budget. He’ll be more observant of the speed limit now, save on gas money because he’ll get better gas mileage going slower, and slower is safer.
There is a reason why speed cameras have increased tenfold. They require very little maintenance and they are a HUGE revenue generator. That’s the sole purpose of those things. Money maker plain and simple...
Might have been one of those “This area patrolled by aircraft” zones. There was about 6 cops standing in the middle of the highway flagging people over and issuing tickets. I unfortunately was one of them, but later got the ticket dropped because the cop in the plane failed to show up :)
It took a "economist" to figure that out?
All sorts of fineable offense "go up."
I got pulled over yesterday because my daughter was leaning too far up. I guess they thought she wasn’t in the seatbelt, but it doesn’t stop you from moving unless the brake is pressed or a sudden stop. She was picking something up from the floorboard and is a teenager.
I got pulled over yesterday because my daughter was leaning too far up. I guess they thought she wasn’t in the seatbelt, but it doesn’t stop you from moving unless the brake is pressed or a sudden stop. She was picking something up from the floorboard and is a teenager.
OH YEAH
and this was the State Patrol. I have never seen the State Patrol in this area before. We are way off the beaten path.
They were out in force along I-75 from a little south of Macon to the south side of Atlanta back on the 28th.
Unfortunately for them, the "public servants" are not smart enough to know that it's exactly the opposite PR than they want.
My husband is a recent victim of the economic recession.
I got the opposite opinion from a police officer tonight.
He said they were very high maintenance (I can easily believe there are a lot of broken cameras), and the city receives a tiny percentage. The contractor gets nearly all of the money.
Not too many years ago, this was called “highway robbery”, but that was only because it was conducted by entrepreneurs rather than armed government agents.
If that’s the case, that’s even more messed up! If anyone gets the money, it should be the city.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.