Ferguson to Increase Police Ticketing to Close City’s Budget Gap [View all]

[dixiegrrrrl]

To close a projected deficit for fiscal 2014, which ended June 30, the municipality will deplete a $10 million capital-projects reserve, Jeffrey Blume, Ferguson’s finance director, said in a telephone interview. For the current year, the city is budgeting for higher receipts from police-issued tickets.

“There are a number of things going on in 2014 and one is a revenue shortfall that we anticipate making up in 2015,” Blume said.
“There’s about a million-dollar increase in public-safety fines to make up the difference.”

Revenue from violations, which already represents the city’s second-largest source of cash after sales taxes, will rise to 15.7 percent of receipts in fiscal 2015, from a projected 11.8 percent this year, he said. In 2013, fines brought in $2.2 million, or 11.8 percent of the city’s $18.62 million in annual revenue, according to budget documents.
Last Reserve

Even with the increased ticketing, a $4.09 million revenue shortfall will remain for fiscal 2015. The city will bridge that gap by drawing on its $10.3 million unassigned reserve, the last of its reserve funds, Blume said. Moody’s Investors Service cited an inability to maintain reserves at satisfactory levels as a potential downgrade trigger in a report from December 2012http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-12/ferguson-to-increase-police-ticketing-to-close-city-s-budget-gap.html.

In plain language:
"that shit we pulled of ripping off citizens for spurious tickets, we're gonna do more of it"