from WND:

Fining residents collects MILLIONS a year and becoming ‘business as usual’

Some cities apparently are helping balance their budgets by fining their citizens.

A new study found three municipalities in the Atlanta area raised millions of dollars through tickets that require residents to defend themselves in a city-controlled court.

“Code enforcement is supposed to be about protecting the public by discouraging – via monetary sanctions – dangerous driving and other hazardous personal conduct or property conditions,” according to the Institute for Justice review of Morrow, Riverdale and Clarkston.

“But in practice, local governments may also – or instead – use their code enforcement powers to raise revenue. This is taxation by citation. It is not a new phenomenon, but only in the past few years has it become an object of national concern. Despite the fresh spotlight, little is known about cities that engage in taxation by citation, beyond a few particularly egregious examples.”

The organization said that over a five-year period, the towns generated on average 14% to 25% of their revenues from fines and fees, while similarly sized Georgia cities took in just 3%.

The revenue totals “peaked in 2012 before beginning to decline as tax revenues increased. These trends generally correspond to the recession of the late 2000s and early 2010s and the subsequent recovery. This suggests the cities – which are poorer than average, face uncertain economic futures and have few means of generating substantial revenues – may have seen fines and fees as a way out of a budget crunch.”

The revenue came from citations for traffic and other ordinance violations, the institute said, “that presented little threat to public health and safety. Traffic violations posed only moderate risk on average, while property code violations were primarily about aesthetics. This suggests the cities are using their code enforcement powers for ends other than public protection.”

The revenue is virtually guaranteed because the citations are handled by “their own courts, which are created and funded by the cities.

The process, however, is “shortsighted,” the study finds, since, “cities may gain revenue, but they may also pay a price for it in the form of lower community trust and cooperation.”

The institute said the city courts returned guilty verdicts in 97 percent of the cases, producing “a steady stream of revenue for municipal coffers.

An annual average of $946,000 was collected for Clarkston, $1,952,000 for Morrow and $1,926,000 for Riverdale. That’s an average fine per citation of $330, $312 and $223, respectively.

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