That’s where the (fine) money goes

When I first came to Central Texas in 1960 to attend the University of Texas, I fell in with a group that liked to make regular pilgrimages to San Antonio. Later I began dating a coed who was from San Antonio and that led to an increased number of car trips to the Alamo City. The scariest city on the road between Austin and San Antonio at that name was none other than Buda. Rumor had it at the time that Buda was known throughout Texas and the rest of the nation, as the world’s most notorious speed trap. I never tried to find out for myself because I purposely drove at least five, sometimes 10, miles an hour under the speed limit when going through Buda. The legend at the time was that if you came within a mile of exceeding the speed limit, the Buda Speed Nazis would nab you and that speeding fines were the sole source of revenue for Buda’s government. This was before radar guns came into common use and the sole source of evidence as to whether or not a motorist was speeding were the words of the Buda cops. Even today, 56 years later, the first words that come to my mind when someone mentions Buda is "speed trap."

I say that only because earlier this week, when I reported on what I viewed as the success of the Kyle Police Department’s one-day crackdown Monday on I-35 speeding, City Council member Damon Fogley suggested I also inform at least those who read this blog, where that money goes. And I thought to myself, first, "That’s a really good idea" because I would like to know the answer to that myself, and, immediately thereafter: Buda = Speed Trap.

If I had to guess, I would have said the money goes either to help finance city government in general or into funding the community courts specifically. But I decided not to guess and turn to the person I perceive as the expert on all things involving City government and money, Kyle’s Director of Finance Perwez A. Moheet. And, lo and behold, I discovered something I did not know before: Although the lion’s share of the money collected from traffic citations does flow into the City’s coffers, the State of Texas gets a share as well. It’s kind of like that scene in Goodfellas, after Henry Hill and Jimmy Conway pull off the $5.875 million Lufthansa heist at Kennedy Airport in 1978 they make sure the boss of their crime family, Pauli Cicero, gets his share, "his tribute," even though he had absolutely no role in the caper.

How much the City receives versus how much the State gets from each ticket varies according to the type of violation involved, Moheet informed me. For instance, the fine attached to a speeding ticket in which the ticketed motorist is cited for driving 15 miles an hour above the posted limit is going to be $239.10. Of that $83.50 (34.9 percent) is the State’s "tribute" and the other $155.60 comes to the City of Kyle. The fines for an expired registration and driving without and license are $141, with $53.50 (37.9 percent) going to the State and $87.60 to the City. The fines for failure to appear in court and failure to provide proof of financial responsibility are both $341, with the State only siphoning off $53.40 (15.7 percent) and the City collecting the remaining $287.60. Those offenses, Moheet said, are the five most common "traffic related violations we process through the Kyle Municipal Court."

Moheet, who said all these fines flow into the City’s General Fund which is the pot of money used to pay for the overall municipal government, also told me that over the last five years, the city’s take for traffic citations has averaged $777,102.80 per year, which amounts to roughly only 4.1 percent of this year’s General Fund budget, not anywhere close to being the sole source or revenue for the City’s government.