Bill to Increase Traffic Fines to Finance New Courthouses Rejected

Despite pleas from Orange and several other counties, the Assembly Judiciary Committee Tuesday rejected a bill to tack a special penalty assessment onto traffic fines to raise money for new courthouses.

Loss of the measure by state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) could delay plans for a new $22-million Juvenile Court in Orange and a $100-million Superior Court annex at the Santa Ana Civic Center, Orange County officials said.

Bergeson’s bill would have added $1.50 for each parking fine and $1 for each $10 in fines for other traffic offenses in Orange, San Diego, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and Sacramento counties. The money would have raised about $5 million annually for Orange County, officials estimated.

Foes Fear Confusion

But opponents said the measure would further confuse an already complex and unequal system of levying fines for traffic offenses.

With other ticket add-ons already in place for police training, victim assistance programs and some court remodeling projects, a $21 fine would actually would cost $54 in some counties if Bergeson’s bill had become law. A $500 fine could cost up to $1,050.

“It makes no sense,” said Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove), a member of the committee. “I recognize the problem; I’m just saying that this solution is a gutless solution.”

The state Judicial Council, which opposed the bill, said that it would be unreasonable for add-ons to exceed the fines themselves. And the American Civil Liberties Union said that it was unfair because those other than traffic offenders use courthouses and should help to pay for them.

Betty Lamoreaux, presiding judge of Orange County’s Juvenile Court, told the committee: “The Juvenile Court has been sitting in a parking lot for 10 years.”

The county, which is planning a new Juvenile Court building on the site of the old Albert Sitton children’s shelter, could have begun construction early next year if Bergeson’s bill had been approved, she said.

Delay Could Be Costly

Everett W. Dickey, presiding judge of Orange County Superior Court, told the committee that a year’s delay probably would add $5 million to the estimated $100-million cost of a planned new Superior Court annex.

Bergeson said after the vote that she would ask the committee to reconsider the measure next month. The bill fell two votes short of passage in Tuesday’s 4-2 vote. But with four members of the committee either absent or abstaining, Bergeson said that there is still a chance.

An earlier bill by Robinson would have raised money for courthouses by reducing the share of money that the county’s 26 cities get from fines and penalties from 15% to 10%. That bill, supported by the county, was killed last year amid strong objections from city officials.