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Chartworthy: Where Your Jaywalking Ticket Money Goes
Chart of Jaywalking Fee Breakdown created by Blogdowntown
The hullaballoo about "zero tolerance" on downtown jaywalking tickets was loud and long and unresolved in our comments. Is the city greedy and overcharging? Or is there more to the story? Now there's a chart to either fuel your frustration or quell your qualms.
Blogdowntown has put together a fantastic chart using Los Angeles Superior Court data that helps answer the $190 question: where does that money go? Turns out, the base fine for a ticket is only $25 and the rest of the money travels farther and wider than you might have expected.
A portion of your ticket goes to state construction funds, DNA identification funds and auto fingerprint ID funds. Nothing that involves walking across the street when the hand begins to turn red.
Only $22.54 cents of your $190 jaywalking ticket goes the City of Los Angeles. The rest goes to the State of California. A finance specialist working for the city notes that the ticket fees don't even pay the salaries of the officers who issue the tickets.
Does this data it make the big fine more palatable to all you past, present and future jaywalkers? Or just as angry as before?
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Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive from readers like you will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.
If this story helped you today, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Your tax-deductible donation keeps LAist independent and accessible to everyone.
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