Reduction of fines worked, sort of

THE OLYMPIAN | • Published August 09, 2009

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A depressed economy didn’t stop people from participating recently in a statewide debt reduction program in 110 municipal and district courts, including six courts in Thurston County.

The monthlong program in May allowed state residents with delinquent traffic tickets and fines to appear in court to pay them off at reduced rates.

Courts and their collection agencies agreed to waive interest and a big chunk of collection costs on tickets in collection.

Some might say the program sends the wrong message, for example, wait long enough and part of your debt will be forgiven. On the other hand, isn’t the state better off collecting some of the traffic fine revenue, rather than clogging up the court system with cases involving unpaid fines?

The program cleared more than 25,500 cases from the books and recovered nearly $4 million.

Compared with a similar effort in October 2002, which resolved about 10,000 cases and collected $1.85 million, the 2009 program can be ruled a success.

Despite this success, the state’s court system still has a backlog of about 1.5 million cases where violators have failed to appear in court.