Senate seeks crackdown on small-town speed traps

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Small Missouri towns that pay the bills primarily by ticketing motorists as they pass through may soon have to find a new way of raising money.

A provision of an omnibus traffic regulations bill debated by the Senate last week would further restrict how much of a city's budget may be funded through traffic fines.

Sen. Delbert Scott, R-Lowry City, said some small towns are motivated by profit rather than public safety.

"It is basically nothing other than highway robbery," Scott said.

The current effort follows a law passed several years ago aimed at removing the profit incentive for speed-trap communities.

Macks Creek, which sits along a main thoroughfare leading to the Lake of the Ozarks, was often cited as a prime perpetrator of ticket abuse. Until the law was changed, the tiny 272-resident town generated more than $200,000 a year from traffic fines.

However, some communities have persisted in practicing what Sen. Harold Caskey, D-Butler, called "tribute for passage."

The new provision would limit revenue from fines to 35 percent of a municipality's general revenue budget and also count court fees toward that percentage. Excess revenue would be forfeited to the state. Currently, fines, exclusive of court costs, can constitute 45 percent of city's total budget.

The tighter restriction was successfully amended on to the larger bill, which remains pending in the Senate.

MSHSAA bill killed

The Missouri State High School Activities Association can put a mark in the win column after a key lawmaker spiked legislation that threatened the existence of the governing authority of high school athletics and other extracurricular activities.

Rep. B.J. Marsh, R-Springfield, said the House Tourism and Cultural Affairs Committee, which he chairs, will take no further action on the bill, which sparked controversy in recent weeks.

"The public school students of Missouri are far too important to risk any changes to a system that has been in existence for 76 years and still remains viable. ... I do not think state control of this organization would enhance its performance," Marsh said in a letter to MSHSAA's director.

Because MSHSAA is a private organization, the legislature cannot directly impose its will on the group through legislation. However, the state can dictate policy to public schools, which constitute the bulk of the association's more than 760 members.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, sought to bar public schools from belonging to MSHSAA unless it changed certain existing rules. If MSHSAA refused, it would effectively have been forced out of business by the loss of its public school members.

Targeted rules included those that prevent elite athletes from competing for their high school if they also belong to a private team, bar home-school or private-school students from participating in activities sponsored by their local high school and force private schools to compete against larger public schools for district and state championships.

Cunningham was disappointed at Marsh's action but said she would continue to urge change within MSHSAA.

Religious freedom

By a 32-0 vote, the Senate passed the Religious Freedom Restoration act on Thursday.

The measure seeks to impose the stringent "compelling state interest" standard on government regulations that impinge religious freedom.

"This legislation restores the level of protection intended by our Founding Fathers that has been compromised by rulings of the courts," said Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau.

Currently, government must merely demonstrate a "rational basis" for such a restriction. Kinder said his bill wouldn't prevent state or local authorities from imposing legitimate regulations that don't directly target religious expression.

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