Salt Lake County has designated September as an amnesty month for unpaid traffic and misdemeanor fines before it begins a crackdown on delinquent offenders.
The county plans to waive all penalties on overdue fines that are paid during the month. The county will buy newspaper space to advertise the program and plans to have its attorney's office staff a special hotline, 468-2626, to answer questions."Salt Lake County has an estimated $300,000 in unpaid fines for traffic citations and other misdemeanant offenses," said County Commissioner Randy Horiuchi. "Every dollar that goes uncollected is a dollar that has to be made up by the taxpayers of the county through higher taxes."
The amnesty program applies only to warrants issued from the county's justice courts. After September, the county plans a crackdown on individuals who have not paid overdue fines.