Bill to Raise Courthouse Funds Signed : Bergeson Measure Will Use Surcharge on Traffic, Parking Fines

Gov. George Deukmejian Friday signed legislation sponsored by Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) that permits Orange and 20 other counties to raise money for courthouse construction by increasing the surcharges on traffic fines and parking tickets.

This means that starting Jan. 1 in Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, parking tickets will be increased $1.50 each and moving violations will go up $2 for every $10 in fines.

Under the legislation, 12 of 21 counties will increase fines on both parking and moving violations while the remaining nine will be allowed to increase only moving violation fines.

$5 Million a Year

The measure, which Bergeson championed for the past 18 months, will allow Orange County to raise $5 million a year for new courthouses.

The money would go toward a planned $22-million Juvenile Court facility in Orange and a $100-million Superior Court annex in Santa Ana.

Bergeson managed to get an almost identical bill through the Senate last year, but the measure was killed in the Assembly in a move led by former Garden Grove Assemblyman Richard Robinson.

Originally, the bill included only 16 counties, but five others were added during the latter stages of deliberations in order to gain enough support from key areas of the state.

“We had a difficult time overcoming some obstacles, but adding the other counties broadened our support considerably,” Bergeson said after Deukmejian signed the legislation.

The senator said the bill was needed in Orange County because of the backlog in criminal cases at both Municipal and Superior courts.

“There is a desperate need for courthouse facilities,” she said. “It is very costly in the long run when you have so much of a backlog.”

Goes Into Separate Account

The increased surcharges on fines will go into a separate account and can be used only for courthouse construction.

Alan Slater, administrator for the county’s Superior Court system, welcomed the news.

“It will help out quite a bit,” he said. “I am pleased because we labored long and hard for this bill.”

Slater said that initially the money from the fine surcharges will enable the county to pay for part of the new Juvenile Court complex and the design of the new criminal court facility.

Bergeson said that although there was some opposition to her bill, she felt that there was no feasible alternative to raise money for the much-needed court facilities.

In opposing the bill last year, Robinson--who left the Assembly to make an unsuccessful bid for Congress--called it a stop-gap measure that would undermine the chances for meaningful reform of the state’s system of paying for the operation of trial courts.

However, Bergeson said this new way of paying for courthouse construction could be rescinded in the future when a better system is devised.

“It can be argued that this is a users’ fee, which is a funding mechanism that is being used more and more,” she said. “And I think it should be continued to be used. There are other alternatives for funding, but right now, the penalty assessment is the only funding mechanism available.”