Since then, Missouri has reduced the maximum fines for traffic tickets and other violations and limited the share of city budgets supported by fees. California and other states also adopted reforms, offering amnesty to some indigent offenders with large debts.
Oklahoma made changes too, but its lawmakers went the other direction. They increased dozens of fees covering all criminal and traffic offenses, hoping to more than double the share of state revenue harvested from the same source five years ago.
"Public safety is a core function of government, and we need to find some way to fund it," said Republican Rep. Scott Biggs, a former prosecutor who supported the increases. If defendants "didn't commit these misdemeanors or felonies, they wouldn't be paying any of it."
Under the plan, fees and fines will generate more than 5 percent of state revenue, up from 2.2 percent in 2011. Comparable spikes are rare, although it's hard to track different systems. No agency gathers national data on state-by-state fine revenue.
Behind the move is Oklahoma's miserable financial condition. The state faced a $1.3 billion budget hole this year because of the energy industry's slump and the Republican Legislature's earlier income tax cuts, which sharply reduced revenue. Many state programs absorbed deep cuts.
