| Tough times equals more tickets |
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| Written by Mark Nichols |
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Whenever really tough economic times set in, local and state governments turn to one of the only guaranteed sources of revenue they know – traffic tickets. And according to FOX News, drivers across the country can expect to be cited immediately for speeding, illegal parking and every other infraction that will put badly needed funds into city and state coffers. Faced with rising deficits and dwindling revenues, many states and local municipalities are turning to increased traffic and parking fines. According to FOX’s Joshua Rhett Miller, the cost of a “fix-it ticket” nearly tripled in California last on January. That means drivers in the Golden State can pay up to $100 for having a broken headlight. That infraction didn’t even qualify as a citable offense just a couple years ago. In Florida, motorists in Pensacola have seen the fines for parking in front of a fire hydrant or in a fire lane go from $10 to $100 after the city’s Downtown Improvement Board reportedly unanimously approved the hike. Statewide, speeding fines also increased by $10 this month, along with an increase of an additional $25 for exceeding the speed limit by 15 to 29 miles per hour. 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 – otherwise known as a ticket quota. “We need to increase enforcement in areas that create revenue … write ‘ONE TAG A DAY,’” Coye told officers in a memo obtained by the Boston Herald. According to a recent study in the 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. They got the idea for the study when Garrett, assistant vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, got a whopper of a 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 told FOX News. “And traffic tickets certainly fit that bill.” Wagner is a professor at the University of Arkansas Little Rock. He said there’s 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, but if police are incentivized to step up enforcement, that naturally results in more tickets,” Wagner told FOXNews.com. “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. subscribeAdd this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites          Comments (0)
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