H.4385 would prohibit counties from adopting budgets which include project revenue from traffic tickets. It would also prohibit counties from revenue from traffic tickets/violations from being expended in the same year it is collected.
This is a positive reform that would dis-incentivize the use of police as revenue collectors. As we have said before many towns have become reliant on traffic ticket revenues as means of inflating their budgets. Such a policy is detrimental to citizens’ liberties and wallets. Law enforcement should be focused on fighting real crimes with real victims, not prosecuting citizens for trivial offenses as a means of wealth extraction.