Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/11/1154.asp

5/29/2006
Nashville, Tennessee Mayor Orders 33 Percent Ticket Increase
Nashville, Tennessee motorists will be ticketed one-third more often under the latest proposal from the city's mayor.

Mayor Bill PurcellNashville, Tennessee police officers will need to step up the number of traffic tickets issued by one-third under orders from Mayor Bill Purcell. Purcell's latest budget is asking police to increase citation revenue by 33 percent. The move is designed to bring in $6 million a year in tickets as compared to just $3 million collected in 2003 and $4.5 million in the current fiscal year.

Nashville Police Chief Financial Officer Christine Ragan denied to the Tennessean that the police would become obsessed with revenue collection. "We never even focus on it. We don't see it. We don't even collect those revenues."

The increased ticket revenue is designed to help the city spend an extra 4.6 percent, or $60 million. The mayor plans to hike the fee for traffic school to generate $616,000 in additional revenue and collect a $200 fee for every car the city plans to tow away, generating $1.4 million in revenue. The rest of the cash would be generated from higher tax collections and various other fee increases.

Source: Traffic stops just the ticket for Metro budget (The Tennessean, 5/28/2006)

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