California State Bill Would Ease Burden Of Traffic Ticket Fines On The Poor

[leftstreet]

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Californians who cannot afford to pay their traffic tickets may soon get relief.

State lawmakers are reviewing SB 185, which would allow judges to reduce ticket fines up to 80 percent based on a person’s income.

Several people in San Diego County told KPBS in January they felt they were being punished solely because they did not have the money to cover traffic fines. In some cases, the inability to pay drove their traffic debt into the thousands of dollars.

“Large fines for minor traffic infractions force many people to go into debt and lose their driver’s licenses, and that can result in them losing their jobs,” said Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, who authored SB 185. “That’s a punishment that doesn’t fit the offense. This legislation restores basic fairness and common sense to fines and fees for minor traffic offenses."

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2017/jul/13/state-bill-would-ease-burden-traffic-ticket-fines-/?utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=kpbsnews-twitter&utm_source=t.co

[dalton99a]

1. Damn good idea

[hunter]

2. Scandinavian traffic fines are proportional to income.

I think that's the only fair way.

Wealthy people don't worry about $159 first offense fines for texting, for example, but that's a very punishing penalty for someone making minimum wage. They might not even be able to pay it.


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Finland, Home of the $103,000 Speeding Ticket

Most of Scandinavia determines fines based on income. Could such a system work in the U.S.?

Reima Kuisla, a Finnish businessman, was recently caught going 65 miles per hour in a 50 zone in his home country—an offense that would typically come with a fine of a couple hundred dollars, at most, in the U.S. But after Finnish police pulled Kuisla over, they pinged a federal taxpayer database to determine his income, consulted their handbook, and arrived at the amount that he was required to pay: €54,000.

--more--

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/finland-home-of-the-103000-speeding-ticket/387484/