McCORDSVILLE — Drivers who are caught speeding or running a stop sign in McCordsville no longer will pay their fines to the town. Instead, they will have to pay costlier ones to the state.
The change stems from the way the state interprets towns’ roles as adjudicators when it comes to things like speeding tickets and other moving violations. That means towns’ ordinance violation bureaus, which proliferated as a way of generating revenue from collecting a wide variety of fines, have been partially hobbled.
The town appears to be one of the last in the county to process such moving violations through its own ordinance violation bureau. The McCordsville Town Council voted unanimously earlier this month to stop doing that. Now, at the urging of the State Board of Accounts, those cases will go through Hancock County Superior Court 2.
That means fines will go up.
McCordsville’s ordinance lists a $50 fine for driving 1 to 10 mph over the speed limit and $85 for 20 to 25 mph over. State fines are nearly double that. Hancock County Prosecutor Brent Eaton said state fines for moving violations are $137 and $252.50 for deferrals.
And because most of the fines now will go into state coffers, the town might well see a hit to revenue. Cathy Gardner, McCordsville clerk-treasurer, said in an email to the Daily Reporter that revenue from the ordinance violations bureau helps support all expenses of the town’s general fund. The town generates income from writing tickets for things like parking violations, nuisance noise, burning rubbish and other infractions in addition to moving violations.
That amounted to more than $45,000 last year, Gardner said.
“The revenue helped to support all the expenses of the town’s general fund so any reduction of income could result in reducing some expenditures in the current budget,” Gardner said. “At this point, I cannot say specifically what those reductions might be…”
Other municipalities shifted their policies long ago.
Becky Hilligoss, New Palestine clerk-treasurer, said the town levied its own fines for moving violations until several years ago.
“We quit the minute the state said, ‘Don’t do it anymore,’” Hilligoss said.
Greenfield and Hancock County also refer all moving violations to Superior Court 2. Fortville continues processing fines for moving violations locally, however. Officials there deferred questions to town attorney Alex Intermill, who did not return a request for comment.
Gregg Morelock, McCordsville’s town attorney, said the State Board of Accounts told McCordsville that moving violations can only be enforced through the local court system. That might be a matter of semantics.
“It’s our position that we are not enforcing it,” Morelock said. “If we have to take (accused drivers) to court, then we do that through the court system, but if we simply give them a notice of violation and they acknowledge that and pay the fine, it is not an enforcement action.”
Morelock said the town has asked to argue about that distinction, but the State Board of Accounts declined.
