http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080619/ts_alt_afp/usenergygovernmentoffbeat

All I've got to say is serves em right.

Keep it on the track.

I'm all for it too. You don't wanna pay the surcharge then don't get ticketed.

I can't believe that people are so up in arms about it. Is it really any different then just upping the fines?

I guess people would just rather pay more in taxes. Then everyone loses.

I know I just got a speeding ticket.
Why not add like $100 to the tickets or more. And don't give warnings, give tickets.
Unless they want people to do stupid things still, to create revenue.

I don't like it. But thats my opinion. Maybe because I highly dislike cops.


I got pulled over on the way home from work last night. The cop told me I had a brake light burnt out and I'm positive that I don't and he was about to write me out a ticket for it. Until I told him he had a parking light out and he tried to act stupid. So me being me I told him "if you as an officer has a malfunction in your vehicle you can not pull me over and ticket me for a malfunction in my vehicle." He gave me a dirty look and told me to have a good evening.

haha thats great Dthreap, the only problem ive had with a cop was i got pulled over for my tinted tails, and the cop kept on telling me to take my "tail light COVERS" off, and i kept on telling him they werent covers. but he kept going on. finally i had to show him they werent covers. then told him they came factory tinted, so i got out of a repair ticket.

I have nothing against cops, but that is stupid. They're making up things to charge you for... which means if they can make this up, they can make up other crap for other violations.

Domestic dispute? We have to add a fuel surcharge for having to respond and one for batteries for our flashlights because it was late at night. Shooting? Robber is shot and killed and the police used 60rnds of ammo to defend you, we'll send you $50 bill for the ammo used.

We already pay taxes for this without them taking more because they're wasting it here and there. I hate bureaucracy.

AMEN!!! X2!!!

what a stupid idea

it has already been stated but i will repeat it if you don't want a whooping $12 added to your speeding ticket then don't speed. and yeah if you are beating your wife then i hope you have to pay a truck load in fines or get sent to prison for a few years. and the person doing the robbery gets the fines not the person getting robbed.

The only ones who are going to have a problem with it are the ones who are effected by it.

When the person doing the robbing is dead, they like to find alternative victims for the bill. It's a slippery slope and I'm against it.

That being said, I have never gotten a ticket or a warning in my life. I've never been stopped by a cop outside of a checkpoint.

So I guess you'd rather have your taxes increased then. Money has to come from somewhere.

The only thing wrong with it I SUPPOSE is it circumvents the process that is needed to raise taxes.

Plus since it takes so long to legally increase taxes and departments are quickly running out of funds because no one for saw the spike in fuel costs they are forced to do what they can to provide the service the public demands. If they don't get the extra they need they have to cut down on how much they patrol (visual presence is a huge deterent), lay off officers etc.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The city of Portland Oregon and Suburbs have acquired the use of Photo Radar and Red Light Cameras. Since they have been introduced I have yet to hear about lack of funds.
If you have the same in your community, I would tend to believe that there are no lack of funds and with the fact that both of these systems use no gas there should be no reason to use the price of fuel as an excuse to raise revenue.
If you live in a community without this technology, then maybe it would be an acceptable form of lost revenue.

Yep. Then the tax increase will either get approved or shot down as it should be, under public scrutiny and not through underhanded surcharges that are taxes disguised as something else.

That's my point exactly. I see this crap all the time and it isn't right. Places that want to taxes individuals or certain activities without getting some kind of official approval just sets precedents for them to continue with it in the future. You might not care now, since you don't speed or say "they deserve it" but wait until they start doing it to something you do.

Isn't that their fault for improperly planning? Cry me a river. Once again, it's ok for them to bend the rules now, but it will just get worse later.

Reminds me of such things as gun confiscations after Katrina... remember, it's for the good of the people!

Crimpton, cameras are a good idea, but there are a lot of issues with the fact that they cost lots of money to implement and aren't cost effective initially. I remember one large city in particular was promised with huge revenues and when they found out people weren't breaking the law like they thought, they began advancing the camera to sending tickets to people who were exiting an intersection when it turned red (which is legal). It turned into a big fiasco and the city lost even more money in court.

All I can say is that this is poor planning on the cities part when they could do other things. While I was down in GA, I saw where they were implementing more officers on bikes, motorcycles and trying out electric transportation devices to combat fuel costs. That is a step in the right direction, the fuel surcharge (tax) isn't.

Thats just plain stupid, Im sorry. Yes speeding is bad but that is plain crap. Its stuff like this that makes people do strange things.