Anybody Know Where This Practice is Occurring?

[Pidgey]

Read this today and wondered where it might be going on. Haven't gotten a ticket in a long time and so I don't know how much it costs here but I didn't think it'd gotten this bad:

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogoct09/criminalizing-poverty10-09.html

 

[ASPCA4EVER]

Not a very factual article...loads of hypothetical and what if's...but as with any 'LAW'...if you are found guilty of the violation and then refuse/neglect to pay the fine then depending upon the amount of court docket/claims/warrants for failure to pay...you might {highly unlikely} MIGHT be issued a bench warrant and your fine will escalate into a larger fine/fee...but I don't know of any traffic court that is so expedient/uptodate that has this type of turn around on their traffic violations {at least not in any surrounding large metropolis here in the mid-west} so this might seem like 'Much-ado-about-nothing'...IMO

 

[Pidgey]

I don't know and this is just a possibility, but there are several cities that ended up giving pretty extravagant salaries to public servants. Haven't done the fact-checking yet, but it was reported that Vallejo, California, had gotten to the point where a beat cop was making about $160,000/yr base pay and a captain would be around $230,000/yr. Once they voted in payscales like that and the local economy started tanking, it simply wasn't possible to continue floating the city budget as well as the pension outlay. That's because pensions were set at about 90% of their top compensation packages. In short, it became a funding nightmare. In such a case, any way to actually bring in money to the city would be utilized and don't think for a minute that the city council wouldn't do such a thing. Vallejo was looking at filing bankruptcy because of all of this.

Okay, that's the hearsay & conjecture--now it's time to go looking for backup data and that's why I posted the thread.

 

[ASPCA4EVER]

BUT...that really blows the current situation out of the water {at least around this area} the older officers {larger pay scales/fatter checks} are being systematically forced into early retirement and thus saving many a municipality those large semi-monthly pay roll processes {funding for departments being so tightly squeezed into blood letting}.

Please, post what you find out...that seems rather odd considering the impact upon the annual budgets...but then again California seems to always be going against the grain in any and all situations!

 

[Pidgey]

Okay, Vallejo bankruptcy filing news:

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202429132330

Discussion at the "Democratic Underground":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=367x11525

 

[Pidgey]

Traffic ticket discussion in a forum, it's both interesting and entertaining:

http://www.yelp.com/topic/los-angeles-260-parking-ticket-in-long-beach

Article on the practice:

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/09/its-the-very--definition-of-a-bad-day-no-quarters-in-your-pocket-the-line-at-the-post-office-is-longer-than--expected-or.html

 

[ASPCA4EVER]

Okay, Vallejo bankruptcy filing news:

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202429132330

Discussion at the "Democratic Underground":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=367x11525

Vallejo declared bankruptcy in 2008 that it blamed on spiraling payroll costs and declining revenue and within weeks asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael McManus in Sacramento to void all four contracts with 400 police, firefighters, electricians, maintenance workers, secretaries, clerks and other city workers.

Land-braking indeed...I'll lay odds that this will be challenged clear up the the federal supreme court {at least the state supreme court could overturn it...but I'm laying odds that this won't be the last of this case} OMG...the ripple affect of that decision just boggles the 'MIND'

Even though the: police, clerks, secretaries settled prior to this hearing...that leaves the rest of the union employees holding onto 'HOPE'...WOW

 

[ASPCA4EVER]

Traffic ticket discussion in a forum, it's both interesting and entertaining:

http://www.yelp.com/topic/los-angeles-260-parking-ticket-in-long-beach

Article on the practice:

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/09/it...-post-office-is-longer-than--expected-or.html

My girlfriend just got a $260 parking citation for parking next to a red curb in downtown Long Beach. I thought maybe 60 or 70 bucks would be reasonable, but 260 %$@#ing dollars is outrageous. Has anyone experienced or heard of a parking ticket for this much?

And then this author went onto explain that his 'girlfriend' knew she shouldn't have parked there in that 'RED ZONE' but she was in her high heels and she had several boxes to haul into KINKO's as a favor for her work!!! Are you 'F'n' kidding me...as one other person posted..."she's very lucky that she wasn't towed"...

JEEZ LOUISE what a A$$ HOLE, she could have packed a pair of walking shoes into her corporate shoulder bag and that would have shown how exemplary she was and how prepared for any and all occasions...LOL

 

[Pidgey]

Yes, people make mistakes and more when we get in a hurry. Of course she shouldn't have done it.

Back to that other deal... well... when you're going bankrupt, you're going bankrupt. Most pensions were structured by way of making investments along the way to "grow" the money because there wasn't any way that the contributions could cover the outlays later. A lot of things in our financial lives work that way, including insurance. In order for all those things to even have a prayer of working, there had to be virtually unlimited room for growth. Unfortunately, the world's come to something of a ceiling and that, as they say, is that.