Fox News
Tuesday , February 10, 2009
By Joshua Rhett Miller

Drivers across the country, beware — a heftier fine could be coming to
a dashboard near you. Faced with rising deficits and dwindling
revenues, many states and local municipalities are turning to
increased traffic and parking fines to fill their coffers.

In California, the cost of a "fix-it ticket" nearly tripled on Jan. 1,
meaning that drivers in the Golden State can pay up to $100 for having
a broken headlight — an infraction that didn't even garner a citation
years ago. A bill approved by the state Legislature raised fix-it
fines to $25 from $10 and hiked surcharges on regular traffic tickets
by $35. Parking tickets and court costs to attend traffic school also
increased, by $3 and $25 respectively.

Motorists in Pensacola, Fla., saw fines for parking in front of a fire
hydrant or in a fire lane skyrocket from $10 to $100 — a 900 percent
increase — after the city's Downtown Improvement Board reportedly
unanimously approved the hike earlier this month. 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.

And 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.

"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.

Coye said tickets are crucial to maintaining quality of life, the
Herald reported. He did not return several requests for comment from
FOXNews.com.

According to a study in this month's 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 an exorbitant ticket for
speeding in Pennsylvania.

Garrett likened traffic violations to a "hidden tax," like hotel
occupancy taxes, that can easily be passed on to 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
said. "And traffic tickets certainly fit that bill."

Critics complain that whereas property taxes are proportionally tied
to property values, motorist fines are flat taxes that have a harder
impact on lower-income drivers; the laborer going 80 mph in a
12-year-old Kia pays the same fine as the trust-fund heir going 80 in
his brand-new Ferrari.

But the tickets generate needed municipal income, and that's why
they're on the rise. Wagner, a professor at the University of Arkansas
Little Rock, said there is 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.

Wagner and Garrett said there's no reason to believe the findings
don't apply elsewhere.

"The incentives aren't just in North Carolina, it could apply
anywhere," Garrett said. "The results pretty much speak for themselves."

Bonnie Sesolak, development director of the National Motorists
Association, said the study backs years of anecdotal evidence.

"It's been no secret that municipalities have always tried to fill
their coffers from traffic citations," she said. "Once that money
starts flowing in, it's really hard to cut it off."

While recognizing the need for traffic enforcement, Sesolak said the
increased focus on issuing citations could spread officers thin in
some areas.

"They're making lawbreakers out of people who normally aren't," she
said. "Their manpower could be better spent in other areas."

And the trend could further disenfranchise low-income drivers who
receive the same fine as drivers in higher salary brackets, she said.

"If they can't afford to pay their fine, they're still going to get to
work to feed their families," Sesolak said. "They're going to drive
regardless."

Barbara Anderson, executive director of Massachusetts' Citizens for
Limited Taxation, said she found Police Chief Coye's memo "disturbing"
and questioned why local police officers hadn't been issuing tickets
with proper discretion all along.

"It's disturbing when you come to realize that laws many of us try to
obey are not being upheld in any predictable way," Anderson said. "So
then you ask, who does get picked on? What makes the decision when
you're going to enforce the law?"

The American Trucking Associations, which represents more than 37,000
members, said its drivers back efforts to enforce traffic laws. "But
legitimate law enforcement reasons, not revenue needs, should
determine the nature and extent of those efforts," a statement from
ATA read.

Meanwhile, Dennis Slocumb, vice president of the International Union
of Police Associations, said he was unaware of any "concerted effort"
by law enforcement officers to write more tickets during tough
financial times.

"The IUPA remains opposed to any type of ticket quotas that might be
considered by state or municipal employees as an effort to increase
public revenue," a statement by Slocumb read.

Moving violations aside, more than a dozen states are considering
giving police officers the authority to pull over motorists solely for
not wearing their seatbelts. The states — including Ohio, Pennsylvania
and Virginia — must pass a bill with the governor's approval by June
30 to be eligible for millions in federal money, the Associated Press
reported.

Ohio, which is facing a projected $7.3 billion budget deficit over the
next two years, would receive $26.8 million if it enacts primary
seat-belt enforcement laws to match those of 26 states and the
District of Columbia, according to the AP.

"If there's a time to be more cautious, our results suggest that time
is now," Wagner said. "But the smart thing is, if you want to keep
your money, you should always obey traffic laws."