Can't these knuckleheads just raise property taxes like normal towns do?

Fines for pensions, wheeeeeeeeee!

Can't these knuckleheads just raise property taxes like normal towns do? ~ mpetrie98 at November 16, 2017 3:08 AM

Why? Property taxes are paid by citizens. Fines are paid by everyone.

Years ago, the town of Waldo, Florida (already a known speed trap near the University of Florida) faced a dilemma. The city needed more money. At a public meeting, two competing proposal were put forth. The first was to raise property taxes. The second was to increase eh fines for speeding. Guess which one won.

As CBS News reported last month, Waldo's seven police officers wrote nearly 12,000 speeding tickets last year, collecting more than $400,000 in fines - a third of the town's revenue.

The town had six different speed limits in just a couple of miles. Drivers enter the city at 65 miles per hour. It then drops to 55, 45 and then 35.

In 2014, corruption led to the disbanding of the Waldo police force and dismantling of one of the nation's most notorious speed traps.

In another story, some time ago, I got a speeding ticket out of state. The fine was $30. The "court costs" were $180. So, even if I'd come back into the state, at considerable expense, to contest the ticket, I'd have had to pay the $180 court costs. I paid the fine and costs by mailed-in check.

Our governments, at all levels, are treating the American people as bottomless ATMs. If you can't raise taxes, then raise costs, fines, and fees; require expensive licenses for mundane tasks such as hair braiding or pet sitting.

This abuse of government power is what caused Ferguson to erupt. Ferguson was part of a string of small towns ringing St. Louis that used traffic enforcement as a fund-raising tool. Excessive court costs that meant even if you beat the rap, you still owed an exorbitant amount of money - on top of the time you lost at work. People in Ferguson could not afford that and grew resentful, seething with anger. Michael Brown was the match that lit that smoldering pile.

Yes, was gonna say, Ferguson.

It's just like Ferguson -- going after people for their curtains (as a violation). It's obscene.

The "court costs" thing is terrible on that speeding ticket. If you'd just paid the fine, what would it take for them to process it, $12?

Here in LA the red light cameras went to a Xerox-connected company, making big bucks on every ticket. They had a financial incentive to never overturn a ticket. A guy named Jay Beeber got these to get ditched -- in most places.

Concur on Ferguson. When I was working in St. Louis, I recall being told by the people who lived in Hazelwood (which is next to Ferguson) that they avoided going to Ferguson because you could get a ticket if, for instance, the cop decided that you had parked "crooked" in your parking space.

Conan, that story sounds a lot like another notorious Florida speed trap from the past, Hacienda Village. The town was only a few acres in Broward County, but the few acres surrounded the intersection of two major highways. There was effectively a mayor-for-life, who was also the police chief and city magistrate. City hall was the trailer he lived in. The city had no employees other than police officers, whose sole job was traffic patrol. The only business in town was a sleazy nightclub owned by, you guessed it, the mayor. The city had no taxes; traffic tickets were its sole source of income. Even by Florida standards, it was an embarrassment to the state, and the state legislature finally fixed it by revoking the city's charter in 1985.

Pagedale, MO: "The couple were given a 30-day deadline to ... add curtains to the windows." Toys in the yard were another fine-worthy violation.

http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2015/05/28/govt_as_thief_t.html

Here in LA the red light cameras went to a Xerox-connected company, making big bucks on every ticket. They had a financial incentive to never overturn a ticket. A guy named Jay Beeber got these to get ditched -- in most places. ~ Amy Alkon at November 16, 2017 6:27 AM

When we lived in the Bay Area, my wife got a ticket for running a toll in LA. We were nowhere near LA on that date. The camera misread the license plate. We called to protest and, since the picture included enough of the car to prove it could not be hers, the city could not enforce the ticket.

In Tampa the local news exposed a scandal when it was discovered that the government, in [actual] collusion with the company running the red light cameras, had timed the lights short so that someone running a yellow light got a red light ticket. The company got a cut of each ticket, so it had incentive to fudge the data as much as possible.

This policy is decided upon by elected officials. If you don't like the policy, vote for someone who will change the policy.

If you can't find someone who'll run on that platform, then stand for office on that platform. The ultimate would be to unincorporate and dissolve the town. Then you'll be ruled directly by the county government, but they generally don't use such underhanded methods.

Otherwise, I would suggest tar and feathers.

Red light cameras: many cities in Florida have ditched their camera enforcement. After paying the company their cut, and the state theirs, the cities ended up with a couple of dollars per infraction.

For the amount of income, it became politically untenable.

"Can't these knuckleheads just raise property taxes like normal towns do?"
Fines get paid by those without political connection.

There's a speed trap as you come off the freeway into Cedar Rapids, IA that's quite tricky. The limit drops from a highway 55 or 60 to a town 30 or 35 in an instant, the sign is in a clutter of stuff on a stoplight corner, and there's a camera with a radar gun that takes a pic of your rear license plate. That's what they send you along with the speeding ticket and the address where you can send the fine. I can think of a half-dozen or more of my friends in MN who have identical pics of the backs of our cars going through that trap, which we got (lo-res, bad quality) from the Cedar Rapids PD. You'd think for the money they charge, they could send a frame.

Otherwise, I would suggest tar and feathers.

I would suggest shooting the cops and prosecutes who purse such picayune charges in the head, and one of their children for good measure - were it not illegal to do so of course.

I'm sure after the third kid died such public servants would stop to protect their kids if nothing else.

"If you don't like the policy, vote for someone who will change the policy."

Can't do that for the majority of the territory you cover.

If you get a ticket along I-95 in Georgia, you will find if you show up for the hearing that it's just a "preliminary" hearing. The "real" hearing date will be established only then, so you can't plan to attend both. This was invented to keep people from challenging tickets when the courts realized the court costs of losing a challenge. It allows tickets to be more expensive, too.

I remember when police weren't a revenue source...

And there Rad hit the most effective solution. If police and courts weren't allowed to be revenue sources most of these problems would go away.

It seems to me the contracted Prosecution Lawyers are subject to California FOIA laws. Are they illegally overbilling? Are they even keeping billing records?