Kokomo city and Howard County officials are looking for new revenues, possibly in the form of money from various traffic violations.

Kokomo city attorney Derek Sublette said this week the city and county are currently discussing the possibility of rewriting local ordinances to include infractions like speeding tickets.

The idea, Sublette said, is to capture fines and fees currently going to the state of Indiana.

The difficulty, however, is deciding what to do with scofflaws who refuse to pay their tickets.

“The law allows you to write local ordinance tickets instead of state tickets,” Sublette said. “But the administrative structure is the complex part.

“We don’t have a city court anymore, so we’re trying to figure out how to possibly use small claims court to prosecute offenders for non-payment,” he said.

Sublette said he’s been in conversations with Howard County attorney Larry Murrell and said county officials appear to be on board with the idea.

He said there are still numerous details to work out, however, and the city has hired outside legal help to assist in crafting legislation.

Any changes to city or county ordinances would also have to survive a respective vote by the Kokomo Common Council and the Howard County Council. So far, nothing has been presented to either council.

Sublette said the city of Lawrence, in Marion County, recently revised its ordinances to make most traffic offenses a violation of city ordinance.

For instance, Lawrence issues tickets for $75 — plus court costs — to anyone caught driving up to 25 mph over the speed limit.

Lawrence city attorney Maura Hoff said Lawrence officers haven’t yet started enforcement of the city ordinance violations (rather than state violations), but said new ticket books for the police officers, citing the Lawrence Municipal Code, have been ordered.

“Statistics show that of the approximately 1,000 traffic tickets issued by the Lawrence police department each month, 75 percent of those are on local roads,” Hoff said. “A traffic citation on a state road only generates $3 for the city’s police department.”

Hoff said there are several details still to be worked out before the new system goes into effect, such as whether Lawrence will need to add a new city court to enforce the ordinance.

There is also the larger question of whether traffic violators might receive an undue break if they are found to have violated a local ordinance instead of state law.

The advantage of writing tickets as state violations is that offenders who fail to show up for court can lose their driver’s license and can even be charged with driving while suspended, a misdemeanor. If a violator breaks the law enough times, the state can prosecute that person as a habitual traffic violator, a felony charge.

Sublette and Hoff both said local ordinance violations would not be an infraction under the Indiana Code.

Sublette said that means an ordinance violation would be treated as a civil matter, instead of as a violation that could potentially put points on a driver’s license.

State roads would not be a part of any new ordinance, meaning that any tickets written for speeding on a state road (such as Washington Street) would have to be state tickets, Sublette said. More serious violations, such as drunken driving, would also be charged under state law.

Under the system being considered, officers would also have the option of writing up a violation either as a state ticket or as a local ordinance violation.

Then there’s also a question of who would go after anyone who refused or forgot to pay a ticket.

Sublette said failure to pay a local ordinance violation would have to be addressed through small claims court. That would be a vast change from the threat held over the heads of state ticket violators, who can have their licenses suspended for missing court dates.

But allowing the state to administer fines and penalties for ticket violators means local communities are potentially missing out on a significant source of funding.

The fact only a few dollars of each ticket goes into the local pot might almost be called a “disincentive” to writing tickets, Sublette said.

Not, he added, that the intent of creating local traffic ordinances would be to increase the number of motorists being ticketed.

“The intent is, if we’re going to write tickets, we ought to at least get some money out of it,” he said.

• Scott Smith is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He may be reached at (765) 454-8569 or via e-mail at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com