Cutting Out the State's Corporate Partners

Here in Minnesota several cities offer a program where receivers of speeding tickets can opt to take a driver safety class to ensure said ticket doesn't appear on their record. It's a wonderful scam because it gives drivers the option of paying a little bribe money, sitting through a boring class, and having their insurance record remain unaffected. Of course this is a problem for the state because this behavior cuts out their corporate insurance company partners who have paid big money for special favors from the state. Needless to say, this practice is now under the threat of state legislation:

ST. PAUL -- Seven Minnesota counties and 10 cities continue to offer a program allowing motorists to take driving safety classes and keep minor traffic tickets from going on their records, even though the state auditor says the Legislature must first authorize the programs and a Wabasha County judge earlier this month ruled programs in his area are illegal.

Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, is offering legislation to penalize local governments that continue the programs.

"Make no mistake, the local units of government that profited from these illegal programs did so out of greed," said Drazkowski, who lives in Wabasha County and has been embroiled in a political battle there surrounding the "traffic citation diversion" program.

Let me rephrase Mr. Drazkowski's words so that they are more accurate. "Make no mistake, the local units of government that are cutting out our corporate partners did so out of greed. They thought that they could cut out the middle man and keep all of the profit for themselves. This is America and that type of behavior is not acceptable!"

We live in a messed up world. The simple act of driving faster than an arbitrarily chosen speed threshold provides so much profit for so many interests that it devolves into a heated political battle. This little fit by Mr. Drazkowski is little different than a gang turf war. One greedy gang is fighting with another greedy gang over the ability to extort money from the people.