A joint investigation by 9News and Rocky Mountain PBS I-News found several small towns in Colorado use revenue from traffic tickets to buoy their budgets. (Thinkstock)
Re: “Limit cities’ reliance on revenue from traffic fines,” May 18 editorial.
The Colorado Municipal League disagrees with the notion that traffic ticket fines should be capped. The 9News/Rocky Mountain PBS I-News joint investigation told part of the story. Here’s the rest. There are 271 cities and towns in Colorado. The “investigation” focused on five among our smallest towns with a combined population of 1,921 people, or 0.036 percent of the state’s population. The five towns combined have a total budget of $3,568,740.
Your editorial calls out Campo, a wonderful little community in the far southeast part of the state. Its total budget is $263,692. Naturally, any revenue from traffic fines or otherwise is going to constitute a higher percentage of the town’s budget than if a much larger city or town were selected. The same can be said for the other towns included in the editorial.
Traffic enforcement in Campo, as well as in every other community in this state, is a local and municipal matter and should stay that way without arbitrary state-sanctioned limits.
Sam Mamet, Denver
This letter was published in the May 26 edition.
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