Posted on: Thursday, February 6, 2003

Counties would get some ticket revenue under Senate bill

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Honolulu and the three other counties could soon be getting a share of traffic-ticket revenue under a bill that moved out of the Senate Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations Committee yesterday.

Representatives for the counties, including Gov. Linda Lingle when she was mayor of Maui, have long complained that they receive no compensation for doing most of the work in traffic enforcement.

Senate Bill 1331 calls for giving all fines and forfeitures collected for uncontested traffic infractions to the counties by fiscal year 2005. About 40 percent of the fines collected annually, about $6 million, are uncontested, according to Randy Roth, Lingle's senior adviser for policy.

The bill calls for the counties getting 50 percent of that money next year, in fiscal 2004, and all of it beginning the following year.

The measure received enthusiastic support from representatives from the counties. City budget director Ivan Lui-Kwan said the city spends $10 million annually enforcing traffic and parking laws.

Sen. Rosalyn Baker, D-5th (W. Maui, S. Maui) said she preferred another bill that would impose a 10 percent surcharge on traffic fines that would go to the counties, a move that would allow the state to keep what it now receives.

But Transportation Chairman Cal Kawamoto, D-18th (Waipahu, Crestview, Pearl City), and others said that they would not feel comfortable placing an extra burden on taxpayers.