As Cities Try To Generate Revenue Thru Tickets, Are TAXPAYERS Getting Robbed?

You know, I can't think of a more appropriate story given my ticket history in the past two months. Although I have been able to typically talk my way out of them -- my abilities were legendary --, the past month has yielded me a couple of tickets that felt more like a transaction.

I don't mind paying the tickets, especially when I know I've done something wrong. I do have a problem with tickets when the sole purpose is generating revenue because politicians can't effectively manage their jurisdiction's budget.

Although things are bad in the New York tri-state area, I found this story relayed by the National Motorists Association's blog, who sourced it from The Daily Breeze. According to The Breeze, a $100 ticket can easily turn into something nearly five times that!

The reason?

Everyone's take a piece out of the ticket revenue pie.

The problem?

Taxpayers are the ones getting screwed because of it.

OR should we all just slow down?


The Daily Breeze put out a story earlier this week that demonstrates how a $100 traffic ticket can turn into $480 burden.

When motorists in Los Angeles County get a ticket with a base fine of $100, they’re hit with 15 additional penalties and assessments that add an addtional $380 to their bill. Unfortunately, there’s not much hope that these penalties are going away or that the government won’t add even more penalties on top:

To help ease the state’s budget troubles, legislators have added several new assessments to traffic fines since 2009, including a $35 “state conviction fee” and penalties that raise money for new courthouse construction.

Among other increases, state security fees doubled to $40 in recent years, and legislators tacked on a $4 penalty to traffic tickets to fund emergency air transport services due to increased Medi-Cal funding of that service. [...]

Other traffic violation fine penalties have been proposed in the Legislature. They include a $3 fee to go to spinal cord injury research, and an increase to the existing DNA identification fines on all criminal offenses including traffic violations.