Traffic fines a reliable - and growing - revenue stream for local government

Cruising along on a warm spring day with the windows down and the music up, you aren’t really paying attention to the needle on your speedometer.

That is, until you see a flash of red and blue lights in the rearview mirror. When the officer hands you a ticket, you know this mistake will cost you.

But what happens to the fines you pay after you’ve settled up in court? It depends on which law enforcement officer wrote the ticket and what county you were stopped in. In Amherst County, for example, that money pays about $50,000 per quarter to the county’s visitor center and funds the purchase of special equipment for the sheriff’s office, such as bulletproof vests and in-car cameras, among other items.

The Memorial Day weekend marks the start of the summer driving season, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. Over this weekend and other summer holidays, the State Police has three-quarters of its troopers on the roads looking for speeders and aggressive or drunk drivers.

This weekend also falls in the center of the Click It or Ticket campaign, where law enforcement officers from across the nation are out ticketing drivers who aren’t wearing their seatbelts.

“We do see an increase in traffic volume over the summer months,” Geller said. “Unfortunately, we also see a spike in traffic fatalities and crashes on our roadways.”

The money generated from summonses issued by state troopers goes to court fees and to Virginia’s Literary Fund, which helps pay for public school construction, technology and teacher retirement.

In 2009 alone, fines and forfeitures funneled into the literary fund totaled $64.1 million, said Charles Pyle, director of communications for the Virginia Department of Education.

If a county deputy writes the ticket, however, that money returns in some manner to the municipality in which it was written.

A traffic ticket is comprised of two parts: the court cost, which is a fixed fee of $51 with a $10 courthouse security fee; and the fine, which varies. For speeding, it’s set at $5 per mile per hour over the speed limit. Failing to wear a seatbelt — $25.

Traffic tickets have become a reliable revenue stream for local government, and that revenue is growing, particularly in Amherst County and Lynchburg.

In Amherst County, that money — almost $385,000 last year — pays the salaries and benefits of two traffic enforcement deputies, said Lt. Greg Turner, of the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office.

The work those two deputies perform has caused a spike in fine revenues to the county, increasing in 2009 by 111 percent over 2008.

The two men who comprise the unit patrol the U.S. 29 bypass, address traffic complaints in residential areas and enforce commercial motor vehicle laws on Virginia 130, U.S. 501 and U.S. 60.

“Each month, the General District Court deposits the fines received with the county treasurer and the court costs received straight to the Commonwealth,” Turner said.

The county’s general fund receives about $2,000 per quarter, with the sheriff’s office receiving the remainder, Turner said. Drunk-driving related fines, however, are forwarded to the Common-wealth Attorney’s office.

The money returning to the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office pays the salary of a part-time general district court clerk and supplies and personnel for the inmate workforce. It has saved sheriff’s deputies from having to take a furlough day and pays for part of the county spring youth ball teams, among other amenities.

In Bedford County, the fines also end up in the sheriff’s office’s operational budget, Capt. Mike Miller said. Fines returned to Bedford County increased 44 percent from 2008 to $171,105 in 2009 but are virtually the same as the amount collected in 2007.

In Campbell County and Lynchburg, the money from traffic summonses and misdemeanors comes back to the jurisdictions but is put in the municipality’s general fund instead of the law enforcement department’s budget.

Capt. Todd Swisher, of the Lynchburg Police Department, said fines funneled into the city’s general fund might pay for anything from public safety to maintaining the city’s parks. Swisher said it was designed that way to prevent any perceived conflicts of interest. For Lynchburg, the money returning to the city increased 18 percent from 2008 to $537,163.

Lynchburg has a dedicated traffic safety unit of seven officers, who have been working in recent days to set up drunk-driving checkpoints and seatbelt checkpoints. Swisher said the department does target areas subject to speeding and other traffic-related problems.

“We had no homicides last year and five traffic fatalities,” Swisher said. “Traffic safety is one of the most critical things we do.”

The fines go into the general fund for Campbell County as well, said Alan Lane, director of management services for Camp-bell County.

“It’s not earmarked for anything,” Lane said. “It’s there to help pay for anything, kind of like property tax. It’s to be used for the operating budget of the county.”

The fines in Campbell County decreased 20 percent in 2009, dropping to $66,858.

Maj. Steve Hutcherson, of the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office, said two deputies are assigned to traffic enforcement but all deputies handle traffic issues in between calls.

Hutcherson said the goal in writing tickets is not to raise money.

“Our goal is to increase traffic safety,” he said.