City Government
Who Says Crime Doesn’t Pay?
December 29, 2010 
As a follow up on the earlier post about Ada County filing suit against the cities over magistrate court facilities, we thought it would be interesting to see how much revenue is generated on a single ticket or DUI conviction.
Here is how it breaks down in 4th District Magistrate Court:
The allocation for a typical speeding ticket written by a City Officer is:
$44.85 to the State, $5.00 to the County, and $35.15 to the City for a total of $85.00.
For a misdemeanor DUI ticket written by a City Officer it is:
$202.50 to the State, $25.00 to the County, and $905.00 to the City for a total of $1,132.50.
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Comments & Discussion
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© 2010 Boise Guardian. 
Dec 29, 2010, 3:56 pm
A key number that appears to be missing from the breakdown of the Typical Speeding Ticket of $85, is the $51.50 in court costs that the individual is required to pay the county on top of the original $85 speeding ticket.
EDITOR NOTE–We got the info from the county auditor and based on our question, the amount should include all the costs.
Dec 29, 2010, 6:32 pm
So how come the county gets such a miserably small portion of the fines?
Who has to pay all the costs of incarceration when a guy is booked into jail? It’s not the city and it sure aint the state. Food for thought….
Dec 29, 2010, 8:28 pm
Writing tickets does pay and good revenue source when city does not have to pay costs of the courts.
Dec 30, 2010, 6:36 am
These dollars are divided according to statutory requirements. The figures Dave quotes are when Boise City PD writes the ticket. I believe if Ada County Sheriff wrote the ticket, the money would be divvied up with more going to the county. But what is not clear to the reader here is that this is not an optional arrangement of how to share funds. The revenue splitting is driven by the state statute.
Dec 30, 2010, 5:20 pm
The other part that is crystal clear is that the city owes the county for the courts costs. So pay up dave.
Jan 3, 2011, 11:32 am
Or…people could simply follow the speed limit or act responsibly when drinking and pay nothing. It’s your choice.