Municipalities throughout Gwinnett County continue to feel the effects of a dispute between the Gwinnett Municipal Association and the county that was unable to be resolved at the end of last year.
Specifically, the county and multiple jurisdictions within it could not decide how to share tax revenues and apportion services between them, with the result that many towns and cities lost their ability from January of this year to use radar or laser to detect speeding drivers. We first reported on this development in a March 8 blog post.
The effects can be clearly seen. In Norcross, for example, city revenue directly attributable to speeding tickets issued to motorists in the first four months of 2011 is down 75 percent from the same period in 2010. That has resulted in a nearly $90,000 shortfall to the city.
Mayor Bucky Johnson laments the loss and acknowledges that speeding ticket revenue is important to Norcross's coffers, but he says that, "Safety is the number one concern."
Norcross officials say that methods other than radar or laser are presently being used to detect speeders and, as noted in our earlier post, that the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department -- which was not a party to the dispute -- continues to use radar and has paired up with many cities, including Norcross, to help enforce traffic laws.
If the county and cities cannot resolve their disagreement through continued negotiations, a state court might step in to decide the matter.
Related Resource: Norcross Patch, "Speeding Citation Revenues Down 75 Percent in City of Norcross" May 11, 2011
