Posted on 02/12/2010 10:45:59 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Battle lines are drawn over lucrative traffic fines
An L.A. councilman and a state senator clash over which entity should issue red-light and other citations and keep the money.
By Rich Connell
5:14 PM PST, February 12, 2010
In an emerging high-stakes battle fueled by government budget woes, a Long Beach lawmaker is attempting to stop cities from launching what she calls a "raid" on state coffers by collecting and keeping traffic fines.
With some tickets now costing more than $500 -- and with most of the money going to the state and the courts -- California municipalities in small but growing numbers have begun issuing traffic citations under their own laws, rather than under the state vehicle code.
Some local officials see it as a winning tactic that allows them to reduce penalties for the public while boosting cash flows because their agencies keep all of the money.
Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine called this week for the state's largest city to pursue such a program for red light tickets and possibly other moving violations.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
P!
Texas small town in the summer ... speed through it and see what happens.. makes piranha look tame.. they have to pay for the new mustangs...
We have a cat fight here, and yes it is over blatant revenue-raising. I don’t know what’s normal in other states as I have so seldom seen a ticket at all, but it would seem to me the smallest unit of government that can address the situation should be the one that does.
A descent into feudalism with tollgates and drawbridges
Government mafia vs government mafia
Each governmental entity craves maximum revenue to hire more parasites who are family and friends of those already feeding at the trough
California is so dysfunctional.
Speed traps and other “traffic” initiatives with the design of revenue collections is immoral and violates the spirit of the law if not the constitution itself.
Watching our current crop of “leaders” on all levels might best be described as watching a man quickly bleeding to death from a carotid artery cut wide open (entitlements) who is focused on using a band-aid to stop the bleeding from a paper cut.
They can use a whole box of band-aids on little cuts but death is still certain. We are broke on almost every level and only a blind optimist will not admit it. Government on all levels will try to nickel and dime their way out of the inevitable (traffic fines) and won’t change a thing. They will just make citizens angry and our children will still be enslaved for today’s entitlements, corporate bailouts, and interest on the debt.
P.S. - Look up Waldo, FL, on the internet. It’s another ridiculous “speed trap town” that has been out of control for decades. Citizens in towns/cities/states that use police to “revenue” should be ashamed of themselves.
An image comes to mind: vultures scrapping over roadkill.
It’s all about the money. It’s ONLY about the money.
Anyone who tells you anything different is either hopelessly naive, or a supporter of this type of literal highway robbery.
It is about the money but it should also be about the citizens who allow this foolishness. I have noted that most of these revenue speed-traps target visitors and not the folks who live there.
I guess the residents can justify the “tolls” for passing through if they don’t pay the toll themselves. Shameful.
Oh, yes! Someone in Sacramento could start laying off state-drones, reducing salaries, and quit appointing suck-up buddies to do-nothing positions.
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