Posted on: Thursday, August 26, 2004

EDITORIAL
Cut the counties in on traffic fines

Congratulations to state Transportation Director Rod Haraga for putting on the front burner an idea that should have become standard policy a long time ago.

Speaking to a city-sponsored transportation safety summit, Haraga said he believes the state should share about half of the money collected in traffic fines with the counties.

That would amount to around $3 million a year.

For too long the state has unfairly gobbled up all traffic fine income while the counties shouldered a substantial burden of enforcement.

It's true that the state encounters expenses when traffic cases go to court. But many do not. Parking fines and a substantial number of moving citations are settled through the mail, with no cost to the state.

Haraga's next task will be to convince his boss, Gov. Linda Lingle, that this is a good idea. That should be an easy sell because Lingle is a former mayor and knows the problem first-hand.

A tougher sell will be the Legislature, which jealously hangs on to any source of income it can. A signal of how tough that job will be came from Senate Transportation Chair Cal Kawamoto, who said he personally favors the idea, but "if the state is short of money, it's probably not going to happen."

Come on. Fair is fair. It is only rational and right to associate revenue collected by government with the service provided.

This should be a no-brainer.