South Carolina joins California in demanding less law enforcement.
Highway Patrol budget cuts means fewer tickets
Associated Press
GREENVILLE, S.C. - Budget cuts at the Highway Patrol mean fewer troopers on the roads writing fewer tickets and investigating more crashes.
The patrol is set to receive about $37.8 million in the next budget year, which starts in July. That's a 30 percent cut from the patrol's more than $54 million budget three years ago.
But next year's budget does have some good news. Lawmakers have placed an additional $100 fine for first-time DUI offenders, and placed a new $25 fine on traffic tickets that will be split among several justice agencies.
The patrol is expected to make a total of about $4 million from both sources, said Don Royal, the Public Safety Department's chief financial officer.
To save money, troopers have been offered retirement incentives, and 79 officers, including Col. Mike Kelley, have taken the deal.
That means about 60 percent of the state's troopers have less than 10 years' experience, Kelley said.
The number of tickets issued by troopers has declined about 20 percent each of the past three years because there are fewer officers on the road, Kelley said.
Meanwhile, the number of wrecks in South Carolina climbed from 100,165 in 2001 to 108,280 in 2002.
One way the patrol saved money in recent years was delaying pay raises for troopers who moved up in rank.
Newly sworn-in Col. Russell Roark, who will take over command of the Highway Patrol in July, hopes to reinstate those raises next budget year.
"One of our main goals is to catch our salaries up and then work on a plan to pay the people we have better so we can maintain our seasoned officers," Roark said.
Budget cuts also have hurt the patrol's vehicle fleet. The agency bought 60 cars this year, down from 300 before the cuts, Kelley said.
Old cars used to be rotated out at 80,000 miles and sold for about $6,000. Now the patrol is rotating them out every 100,000 miles and making less than $3,000 on their sale, he said.
One way the patrol is dealing with budget cuts is to emphasize enforcement efforts on the most dangerous roads, Kelley said.
"We're going to put these guys where they're having the most violations and the crashes," he said. "Hopefully, it will reduce these crashes so it will give these guys more time to do enforcement work."
Information from: The Greenville News |
