Chief Patron: Watkins
Local Fines and Fees ($60 Per Capita Threshold) (language only)

Item 3-6.05 #4s

Language
Page 518, strike lines 24 through 37 and insert:
"A. The Auditor of Public Accounts shall annually calculate the amount of total fines and fees collected by the District Courts in the most immediate preceding fiscal year.  For any locality in which the local fines and fees collected exceed 50 percent of the total collections, and the total amount collected exceeds $60 per capita, based on the most recent population data in the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the State Comptroller shall deduct the entire excess amount of local fines and fees above $60 per capita from any current payment of local fines and fees before remitting to the localities their remaining collections.  The State Comptroller shall promptly and without delay transmit any and all non-withheld local fees and fines to the locality's treasury not later than sixty (60) days after these fines and fees were deposited and recorded in the state treasury by the District Courts.  Furthermore, the State Comptroller and the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court shall work with the District Courts and the localities to develop a process to provide the localities a complete accounting of when these fees were collected.  The State Comptroller shall deposit the withheld funds in the Literary Fund, as they become available.
B. The Auditor of Public Accounts shall provide the State Comptroller the annual calculation by May 1 of each year for future withholdings.  The State Comptroller will act as a fiscal agent, holding the amounts of local fine and fee collections in an agency fund."

Explanation
(This amendment adjusts the formula by which local collections of fines and fees based on local ordinances may not exceed a certain threshold of the total collections of fines and fees. This amendment sets the threshold at $60 per capita in collections, and requires that for any locality where the local collections exceed 50 percent of the total collections, the excess local collections above $60 per capita be transferred to the Literary Fund.)