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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Jennings

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/14/07

3/15/07 HB

SHORT TITLE Municipal Traffic Violation Penalties

SB 780/aSJC/aHTPWC

ANALYST Earnest

REVENUE (dollars in thousands)

Estimated Revenue

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

FY09

$0.1*

$0.1* Recurring General Fund

$0.1*

$0.1* Recurring

Judicial

Education Fund

$0.1*

$0.1* Recurring

Municipal Court

Automation

Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Revenue Decreases)

*Indeterminate but potential positive impact from assessed penalties and fees. See revised fiscal

implications section. See also the Synopsis of the HTPWC Amendment for an AOC estimate of

revenue that would have been generated for the state from Albuquerque’s STOP program.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Finance and Administration (DFA)

Department of Public Safety (DPS)

NM Municipal League

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of HTPWC Amendment

The House Transportation and Public Works Committee (HTPWC) amendment strikes the entire

SJC amendment and strikes Sections 2 and 3 of the bill. The HTPWC amendment replaces new

language in Section 1, Subsection A, to require a municipality, “including a home-rule

municipality that has adopted a charter pursuant to Article 10, Section 6 of the constitution of

New Mexico, that enacts an ordinance creating violations that are the same as or related to

violations of the Motor Vehicle Code, to:

Senate Bill 780/aSJC/aHTPWC – Page

2

(1) establish fines or penalties for the violations that are identical to penalties in the

Motor Vehicle Code for the same or most closely related violations of that code; and

(2) unless the person charged with a violation is subject, for that violation, to the

jurisdiction of a municipal, magistrate or metropolitan court, charge fees and make distribution

of those fees, as described in Section 35-14-1 NMSA 1978 for municipalities with municipal

courts and as described in Subsection D of Section 35-6-1 NMSA 1978 and Section 35-7-4

NMSA 1978 for municipalities with magistrate or metropolitan courts;

AOC indicates that 89,000 citations have been issued through Albuquerque’s STOP program.

According to AOC estimates, if the provisions of this bill were in effect at the outset of the

STOP program, the revenue to the state would have been distributed as follows:

Recipient

Traffic

Violations Fee

Assessment

# of STOP Citations

since June 2005

to Feb 2007 (20 mos)

Potential

Revenue

Collected

General Fund

10.00

89,000

890,000.00

Court Automation

AOC

10.00 89,000 890,000.00

Facilities Fee

NMFA

24.00 89,000 2,136,000.00

Correction Fee

Local Public Bodies

10.00 89,000 890,000.00

Brain Injury Fee

Aging & LTC

5.00 89,000 445,000.00

Traffic Safety Fee

DOT

3.00 89,000 267,000.00

Judicial Education Fee

UNM/Jud Ed

2.00 89,000 178,000.00

Total Assessment

64.00

$ 5,696,000.00

Source: AOC and LFC Files

The HTPWC amendment also adds a new Section 2, stating that the provisions of the act apply

prospectively to all municipal ordinances enacted before or after the effective date of the act.

Synopsis of SJC Amendment

The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) amendment inserts references to the fees authorized by

Sections 66-8-130 and 35-14-11, which require, respectively, traffic citations to conform and set

fees for distribution to municipal courts and state treasury. The revised fiscal implications

section below describes these distributions.

SJC amendment #9 incorrectly refers to “assessments" on line 7 of page 7. The correct reference

is “assessment".

Synopsis of Original Bill

Senate Bill 780 would prohibit municipalities from setting penalties for traffic violations higher

than those set by state statute. Specifically, the bill provides that penalties and fees imposed by a

civil or criminal nuisance ordinance for violation of municipal traffic laws or codes, including

those imposed by a home-rule municipality that has adopted a charter pursuant to Article 10,

Senate Bill 780/aSJC/aHTPWC – Page

3

Section 6 of the constitution of New Mexico, shall not be different than the penalties and fees

imposed by the state in the Motor Vehicle Code for violation of identical or similar traffic laws.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

By requiring municipal penalties to conform to state statute, including revenue distribution, the

state should realize an additional but indeterminate amount of revenue. Failure to obey a traffic

signal is a $10 penalty and is remitted to the state treasury. Section 35-14-11 requires

municipalities to assess corrections, judicial education, and court automation fees. Corrections

fees are set a $20 and retained by the municipality for detention and other correctional costs.

Judicial education fees are set at $2 and remitted to the state for training of municipal judges.

Court automation fees are set at $6 and are remitted to the state for operations of court

automation systems in municipal court. Section 66-8-130 also requires the municipality to assess

an additional $10 penalty for construction and operational costs of municipal jails.

The bill may result in reduced revenue for those municipalities that have set penalties higher than

in the state Motor Vehicle Code.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to DFA, the bill will restrict the ability of local governments to be creative in their

imposition of fees and fines for motor vehicle violations. In practice, the communities affected

by this proposal will experience a drop in receipts from local penalties and fees. The NM

Municipal Leagues notes that municipal penalty assessments are substantially similar to those

provided for in the state Motor Vehicle Code, although there are a few municipal penalty

assessment programs that impose higher fines. In particular, the City of Albuquerque would be

required to amend its STOP program to provide for civil penalties that mirror the state Motor

Vehicle Code with a corresponding significant reduction in revenue.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

NM Municipal League finds this bill to be inconsistent with section 35-14-11 that sets forth the

fees municipal judges are authorized to impose.

NM Municipal League also suggests changing, in section 3 paragraph B, $10.00 to $20.00 to

reflect existing law.

BE/nt:csd