Houston Trade-Off: Fewer Traffic Fines But No Petting Zoo? --- Just as City's Economy Turns Corner, Police Slowdown Widens Budget Shortage
HOUSTON -- They serve, they protect, and they don't write traffic tickets. Who could ask for more in a police department?</br></br>Mayor Kathy Whitmire, for one.</br></br>Upset over the way they are paid for court appearances, among other issues, protesting police officers here are writing about 40% fewer tickets than budget makers had forecast. That slowdown, if it continues, will mean $13 million less in traffic fines than had been counted on in the coffers of budget-conscious Houston this fiscal year -- the biggest share of a projected $19 million budget deficit.</br></br>Although the projected total deficit is just a drop in Houston's budget bucket -- less than 3% of the general fund for the year -- it is forcing the city to heap a new round of painful cutbacks after years of scraping to the bone.</br></br>Take those 100 municipal-court workers who just got handed pink slips. Some of them were deemed dispensable because they processed traffic ticket fines.