![]() Dartmouth's Steven Mello finds that for people in Florida's poorest quartile, a $175 traffic ticket causes a degree of financial distress similar to that caused by a significant earnings decline. ![]() Fines, plus related fees and costs, can devastate someone who is financially struggling. ![]() The amount they owed jumped from $1,000 to $3,900.Ĭharging everyone the same fine is regressive. ![]() By 2017, however, 10,000 people filing chapter 13 listed city fines among their unpayable debt. According to ProPublica, 1,000 Chicago residents who claimed chapter 13 bankruptcy protection in 2007 included unpaid city tickets in their debt. As of 2018, Chicago drivers have racked up more than $275 million in unpaid fines for city-sticker violations since 2012, far more than the initial revenue goal, and it's causing many of them financial ruin. (I believe these are conservative estimates since some municipalities put money in places difficult to track, and the report doesn't include locales that collect less than $100,000 per year in fines.)īut if Chicago's experience is any indication, plans to raise money this way won't garner as much as expected-and will bury some of the poorest people in debt. A 2019 investigation by Governing magazine finds that while the vast majority of local US governments earned less than 5 percent of their general fund revenue from fines, nearly 600 local jurisdictions collected more than 10 percent that way, and 284 governments collected more than 20 percent. This phenomenon goes beyond Chicago, as other cities across the US, facing shrinking tax bases, are also relying on fines to balance their budgets. This plan is reminiscent of one from 2012, when then mayor Rahm Emanuel attempted to raise $16 million by hiking the fine for not having a vehicle sticker from $120 to $200. But the city will soon also ticket drivers who are 6-9 mph over the limit. Until recently, anyone caught on camera driving 10 mph over the speed limit was fined $35 and up. If you don't want to pay more, all you have to do is follow the rules.Ĭhicago mayor Lori Lightfoot is using this playbook. Fines are convenient and politically expedient, as elected officials can say that the budget will be balanced not by taxpayers as a whole but on the backs of people who break the law. Many local governments have turned to fines to fill their coffers. Politicians are reluctant to hike taxes, and there are few other options for raising revenue. We can do better.Ĭonsider the current situation: more than a decade of economic volatility has led to budget shortfalls for governments at every level. It hurts poor people and fails to bring in revenue. By contrast, the way municipalities in the United States issue most fines is neither progressive nor effective. ![]() Other countries including Finland also base fines on income. But there is also a lesson for US policy makers in the form of personalized fines. One takeaway here is to slow down on picturesque roads, at least while driving in the Swiss Alps. Later that year, officials ticketed another driver, this time in a Mercedes, about 1 million Swiss francs. The fine was based not on the driver's speed but on his ability to pay: he was reportedly worth more than 20 million francs, and had four other luxury cars besides the Ferrari. In January 2010, Swiss officials handed down what was briefly the most expensive speeding ticket on record: 299,000 Swiss francs (US$290,000), the penalty for the driver of a red Ferrari Testarossa caught going up to 137 kph (85 mph) through the town of St. ![]()
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