Our town is small and believe it or not, the airport doesn’t pay taxes.  The airport continues to expand and take over more land, which in turn causes more land to become tax free.

So, it’s this little town that is dwindling… and I don’t think that the tickets-as-revenue strategy is doing us any benefit.

But I just want to point out:  the businesses in town aren’t the one who came up with this strategy, it’s the police department.  (and this is said by someone who is looking forward to probably paying off a relative’s speeding ticket, which is why I searched on these terms in the first part)

(oh, and before someone else says that these things are “liberal policies,” like someone said above.  We’ve had a Republican led state senate this entire time, along with a state Governor for a while now.  The republican blocking of raising any taxes, coupled with the lowering of property taxes that is the natural result of lower property values, has led to some governments being forced to pick idiotic ways to raise revenue like this whole “let’s give everyone tickets” crap.)

I wish there was some way I could vote on this sort of thing, but in the mean time, I definitely understand your frustration and agree with it.  but — don’t blame the guys running local restaurants or even the gas stations.  They happen to just live here, same as me.

As to how far down the road the exit was – it was IMMINENT.  As in a 1/4 mile.  Betty

And for those who want to think its all about safety the city attorney’s office couldn’t plead my ticket down fast enough once he saw I had an attorney.  The ticket was changed to “double parking” (sound reasonable as you are going down the highway at 60 mph) - this way I got no points and the city still got there money (about $180 when all was said and done).  Plus I paid my attorney $250 for his services.

I agree with “justvisiting” and also extract my pound of flesh from the City of Romulus.  I NEVER do any business in that city.  I make it a point to stop for gas before I hit the city limits and will never spend a dime in that city again.  Plus I tell all my friends to watch out for the Romulans – become a bit of a running joke – which the city and its police force totally is.

I would have posted sooner but just happened to come across the blog today.

Betty Facey

Years ago I got a $140 ticket while driving 77 in a 70 mph zone in the middle of west Texas. I hadn’t seen another car or even a gas station for miles, and I thought the fine was outrageous since I was only 7 miles over the limit in a vastly unpopulated area. I paid the ticket when I got home and have not been back to Texas since. Before that incident I had spent plenty of vacations in Texas, ran the San Antonio marathon, spent a week in Galveston/Houston, enjoyed a July 4th weekend in Kemah, went to Austin for the music festival, etc. Now I find other places to vacation where I’m not getting gouged by small towns looking to tax tourists in this way….there are plenty of options.

For $140, the state’s tourism department lost thousands of dollars in vacation spending from a once loyal visitor. If everyone did this, the dip in tourist spending would eventually offset the gains in ticket revenue.

Once the officer arrived at my door I opened it and became sick at his feet. He never asked was I okay? He never checked to see if I were drunk. He never asked for my license, registration, proof of insurance nothing. He simply asked if this were my car? I said yes and he came back with a $120.00 ticket.

I petitioned to fight the ticket the “court date” was March 27, 2009. I got there and signed in with approximately 100 other people. Finally when my name was called a man with a folder with my information in it looked in the folder and told me that he saw that I had a perfect driving record and probably would like to keep it that way. He proceeded to tell me that he could make a deal with me.

I told him what happened and that I wanted to go before the judge. He said that the officer had nothing like that in the report. I told him I was not driving a lone. I had a witness. He asked if I wanted a formal hearing with an attorney there or an informal hearing with the judge. I opted for the informal. He than said, that I would receive a notice approximately 6 to 8 weeks in the mail with a new court date.

I got a notice on April 3, 2009 stating that I failed to appear in court and now the total fine was $145.

Oh my God! Is there no justice? Or, can these people hijack and mob bully me into accepting having to pay a ticket that was unjust and receive points not earned? What can I do?

1. Speed traps are real. They have been well documented by both independent groups and by “higher up” government bodies (i.e. state auditors checking out local towns where speeding fines represent upwards of half the town revenue). Whether this one is such a case is debatable, but I would argue that if the cop is sitting inside his car, with the lights flashing, and has no one pulled over – and then stops someone for not moving to the center lane – then it’s the equivalent of a speed trap. The law is to protect emergency workers who are out of their vehicles, not to give a reason to park a police car and then pull over anyone who doesn’t avoid it enough.

2. The $150 “fine” is probably, in actuality, a $25 fine coupled with $125 or so of court costs. Court costs are a separate but nationwide scandal, where legislators and city councils, unwilling to vote for taxes to pay for the services they want to have, instead assess “court costs” against defendants in all proceedings, including traffic violations, to pay for whatever the locals want. So of that $125, $20 goes to the Clerk of Court Retirement System, $20 goes to the Clerk’s Computerization Modernization Fund, $25 to the Regional Crime Lab Development Fund, and so on. The premise is that the court cost is a “fee”, not a “tax”, but the “fee” bears no relationship with any benefit received from paying it.

3. Yes, police do target out-of-state drivers whenever possible, when the pressure is on to raise revenue. There doesn’t have to be a direct quota; there doesn’t have to be any sort of organized program. The head of the police agency just has to let the word be known that due to budget constraints, there will be cutbacks, etc. unless revenues improve. Cops on patrol know what that means – get the numbers up. And an out-of-state driver is far less likely to contest the ticket, since that requires a personal appearance on a return visit.

Years ago in Houston, I was on the feeder, doing the feeder speed limit, then got on the on ramp and then started accelerating to the appropriate highway speed limit, and then found the cops were pulling over EVERYBODY entering the highway. No, there really were no people getting by them onto the highway, it was a speed trap roadblock set to sweep all cars aside for tickets no matter what. The ticket was for speeding faster than the feeder street speed never mind the fact that DUH we were getting on the highway on the on ramp.

Didn’t matter. I was livid and contacted an attorney, insisting on fighting it. He shows up at court and says, well, if you want to spend a day in jail, get fined $2000 on top of my fees, and sit here for 7 hours before you are called, then sure, we’ll fight it, but I have to tell you, I’d rather help the honest defendants that will go ahead and admit wrong doing and pay the small fine then help someone like you.

Needless to say, I don’t trust anyone in the court or the police system in Houston after that.

MI is a bright shing example of the failure of Liberalism as they are now resorting to using the police to collect revenue to fund their failed policies.