Traffic ticket

MOULTRIE — County commissioners are considering a resolution to support legislation that will add a technology fee to traffic and motor vehicle violation tickets in Colquitt County.

“Let the violators pay for the equipment that catches them,” said County Administrator Chas Cannon.

Cannon, who also serves as the local representative in the state House of Representatives, handed out a copy of the legislative bill then explained to the commissioners that it would give the state court judge the ability to add on a technology fee of up to $15 to any traffic or motor vehicle violation.

“This requires a local legislation, which I could drop at the General Assembly. But in order to do that, they want from the local delegation a resolution in support of the local legislation,” he said.

He said that a state lawmaker can’t just introduce a bill without the local delegation knowing about it.

“I’m okay with dropping this at the state level as long as commissioners pass a resolution to support it. That way we have some back-up to say the local delegation supports this,” Cannon said.

He said the add-on fees could be used for specific things that are written in the bill and, basically, will help offset the costs of some of the equipment the sheriff’s office purchases on an annual basis.

“A lot of counties are doing this. A lot of cities are doing it. There must have been 20 or 30 technology fee bills passed last session,” Cannon said.

State Court Judge Richard Kent would handle it, he said, and it would be at his discretion to add the fee to the ticket. The clerk of court would administer the collected fees and would disperse the funds when the sheriff made requests for them, he said.

Commissioner Barbara Jelks wanted to know if the amount of the fee would be across the board for everyone or would it be on an individual basis and was told that it would be done on an individual basis at the judge’s discretion.

Sheriff Rod Howell said that Kent already set the bond amounts on misdemeanor cases and was already in control of that. He said that he had seen it done, in other places, where the more severe the violation, the higher the fee.

“A lot of people just have a flat rate of like $5 for each individual ticket,” Howell also said and Cannon added that the language, in the bill, could be changed to make it a flat fee.

Cannon also said that it would offset the sheriff’s technology costs and “It would reduce our general fund and/or SPLOST budget, if we did this.”

The commissioners are going to think about whether they want to adopt the resolution to support the bill or not and let Cannon know. They would need to make a decision by March 1, 2025, he said.