We are not quite halfway through the 2024-25 budget year for city and county government and we already have agencies and organizations that need city and county money. Your money!
And your commissioners and supervisors can either dip into the general fund, find new sources of revenue or raise taxes.
As your Clarksdale Press Register has repeatedly said, why don’t they look at collecting more than $1.7 million in unpaid fines?
This newspaper thinks that is a fine idea -- no pun intended.
Most of us have probably “run afoul of the law” and been given a citation or hauled into court and justice served with a fine. The good folk in this world, admit their blunder, promise the judge they will be more careful and pay their fine.
But there are some people in Clarksdale who admit their infraction, promise the judge anything and then walk out never intending to pay the court.
That is not right and that is not justice.
What could the City of Clarksdale do with some of that money? There will be candidates promising lots of new ideas, programs and promises to fix things in this town this election season. Ask those candidates where are they going to get the money to do all those great things. Ask them if they are going to make our judges, courts, constables and police collect those fines.
What could Supervisors do with an extra $1.7 million dollars?
They could make our E-911/Sheriff’s Department dispatchers top notch. The city might hire a couple of extra policemen to patrol neighborhoods. And if they looked real hard they could probably find a street or two that needs paving.
Your Clarksdale Press Register urges our Commissioners, Supervisors, Judges and Sheriff to look once again at their list of unpaid fines.
Turning up the heat on those who owe the city and county past-due fines will certainly help our community’s bottom line.
We would like to point out these fines would be collected from people who have already been convicted, sentenced and fined by the court.
We hope smart people will just pay the debt they owe society. We hope judges will put pressure on those who don’t pay up with time in jail.
And we hope that revenue will be used to make our community a better place to live.
