Posted on: Tuesday, June 1, 2004

EDITORIAL
Traffic ticket fines belong in legal system

Mayor Harris clearly expressed the city's quandary on traffic fines in allowing a provision introducing "administrative" fines to become law without his signature.

This badly flawed measure won't "be able to withstand scrutiny," presumably in the courts, Harris said. It may well violate state law.

But Harris indicated support for the bill's intent, noting that the counties for years have been struggling to capture some of the revenue generated by traffic and parking tickets.

And why not? Local authorities issue the tickets and pay for the enforcement. Shouldn't they be entitled to some of the revenue?

The answer is yes. Although the city should never use law enforcement as a revenue driver, and because the state does need some revenue for court expenses, the city should be entitled to that share of fines that are "unadjudicated" — that is, do not go through the state court system.

The Legislature, however, so far has refused to enact this fair arrangement.

So out of frustration, Councilman Charles Djou introduced the administrative fines measure. The Legislature should do the right thing, approving fine sharing with the counties, before Djou's badly flawed measure goes into effect July 1, 2005.