"In any state, especially with the recent years with all the things going on, we should be increasing the amount of troopers we've got," State Senator Gene Abdallah says. "Right now, there's only fourteen troopers on duty in the whole state. 77,000 square miles in this state and we've got fourteen troopers on duty, we're running on bare bones now" [Karla Ramaekers, "Proposed Cuts to 'Public Safety,'" KELOLand.com, 2007.12.23].
"Things going on" -- expect a clarification of that term in committee and on the floor fo the Senate next month.
Those fourteen troopers will perhaps be relieved their patrol territory has just been cut in half. That should help weather the budget cuts.
While Senator Abdallah appears to have a reasonable point about public safety, he ventures further into what we might refer to as the Rosco P. Coltrane Theory of Law Enforcement:
And Abdallah says the proposed cut will hurt more than just the highway patrol... he thinks it will cause a ripple effect to other areas of state funding as well. He says that's because the money made from tickets and arrests on South Dakota highways feeds directly into the school system.
"It's going to have a trickle down effect. They don't make the arrests they've been making, the schools get less, and we all know the schools need money," Abdallah says [Ramaekers].
Perhaps we need to grant Senator Abdallah some leave to argue his case from every pragmatic angle he can find. However, arguments in favor of spending on law enforcement ought to stick to public safety and justice. When we look at law enforcement as a money maker for schools and local governments, we end up in Colman, where speeding tickets became a cash cow and a replacement for fair and responsible taxation.
If the HP needs more money to catch bad guys and protect travelers, then let's find the two million dollars. If the schools need the money, let's raise the necessary taxes. Let's not base our school funding on how many folks we can charge with a crime.
I'm surprised Madison, with its new reduced 30 mph speed limit coming into Madison as you approach AmericInn on highway 34, has not yet begun a Police speed trap program to slow down drivers, and also to create some revenue.
ReplyDeleteAt least Colman is 35 mph through town, but Madison, with its archaeic 20 mph speed limits on all residential streets, keeps us artificially slow, both in traffic speed and progress.
Want progress? Increase the speed limit on main arteries like Egan Avenue, Division, Prairie and 9th Street to 25 or 30 mph. That's the natural speed for those streets.
When out-of-towners or development prospects come to Madison, they must feel like they've entered Mayberry, with our 1920-style speed zones.
30 mph out by AmericInn? Seems silly, since there aren't that many access points there, no residential driveways or sidewalks like in town.
ReplyDeleteBut do we really need to go faster in town? Suppose you have to travel a mile within city limits. At 20 mph, you get there in 3 minutes. At 30, you get there in 2 minutes. 1 minute saved. Worth it?
Do we need to go faster to impress our out-of-town visitors? How about ramping up the speed limit on the other highway, the information highway? Make Madison a citywide wireless hotspot (turn the water tower and the hig-rise into antennae), and our visitors won't mind a slow drive across town at all.