Excerpt
Many of the middle class are living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to keep their heads above water. Perhaps you recently lost your job due to your company closing, downsizing or moving out of state, or maybe you’re working two part-time jobs until you can find a good-paying position in your field of choice. The fear many working people have that an unexpected expense can come along that can put them in over your head is a real one. Imagine running late to work one morning and you are speeding because you can’t afford to be late again. You get pulled over and get a $200 ticket for speeding. You’re barely getting by and paying this ticket would mean not paying for the kids’ daycare or your utility bill that month. As a result, you don’t pay the fine or go to court because you can’t afford to take the day out of work. Now, there is a bench warrant issued and the court sends your information to the DMV to suspend your license. Because of this, your license is suspended, but you still need to go to work, so you continue to drive because public transportation won’t get you there. Then the worse thing happens, and you get pulled over again or get into an accident. You are now charged with a crime; operating on a suspended license. At this point, the only way to avoid jail is to pay the original $200 fine, plus penalties, court costs, warrant fees and any new fines from the new charge. It’s just a matter of time before you are sent to prison for non-payment, and likely lose your job, allowing you no way to pay this debt or any of your other family bills.
Such consequences are inevitable. There are 222 million licensed drivers in America today.3 As Americans we pay more than six billion dollars in fines from traffic offenses each year.4 A literal cash cow for municipal and state governments nationwide. This is one reason why politicians throughout America can avoid doing the unthinkable; raising taxes.
Instead, they stabilize taxes by increasing revenue in other areas.
A study of municipal, county and state budgets nationwide has shown that governments faced with reduced revenues rely quite a bit on traffic offenses to pay for their expenses to the point that they budget for the expectation that motorists will break the law.
Municipalities use a ticket quota system to force officers to write more tickets, or dangle the opportunity for overtime to officers to go out and raise revenue. And State Governments budget with the expectation that officers will write x-number of tickets. And whether it is called “traffic calming measures,” “accident reduction,” or something else, it is all for the same purpose; taxation by citation. Whatever you label it, it all comes at a cost to the working people in America. When the ordinary government revenue goes down, significant increases are seen in the issuance of traffic tickets.