It’s budget time for the county and they can either 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 Supervisors do with an extra $1.7 million dollars?
They could make needed repairs to our parks and county buildings. They might hire a couple of extra deputies to patrol neighborhoods. And if they looked real hard they could probably find a road or two that needs paving.
Your Clarksdale Press Register urges our Supervisors, Judges and Sheriff to look once again at their list of unpaid fines.
We had elections last summer and we will see if county leaders the political guts necessary to make those who owe our county money pay up.
Turning up the heat on those who owe the city fines will certainly help Coahoma County’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.
And we hope that revenue will be used to make our community a better place to live.
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