Governor Bobby Jindal has signed the so-called "speed trap bill"
into law. Fines for speeding tickets written on interstates by local
authorities--when the speeding is less than ten miles over the
limit--will go to a state police fund instead of local
jurisdictions. Joe Pitre, the mayor of the town of Washington, is
one of several mayors who asked the governor to veto this. He says
they're researching its constitutionality now.
The bill's author, Ruston Representative Hollis Downs, notes that
Washington is one of the towns named in a Legislative Auditor's
report as making over half its annual revenue from speeding fines.