Senate votes to raise fines, not speed limit

The Iowa Senate has voted to raise dozens of traffic fines.The bill, for example, raises the fine for carrying an open container of alcohol in a car from 50- to 100-bucks. Trying to get into a bar or buy cigarettes with a fake I-D would cost you two-hundred-50 bucks. The fine today is just a hundred. In total, the bill raises over a hundred fines, but a few are lowered. For example, the unlawful use of a golf cart will get you a 100-dollar fine today. The Senate voted to lower the fine to 50 bucks. Senator Merlin Bartz of Grafton tried to tie the fine increases to an increase in the speed limit on Iowa’s Interstates to 70 miles an hour.The attempt failed on an overwhelming 31 to 18 vote, which Bartz attributes in large part to the fact that many state Senators are over 50. He says most of the people that oppose the speed limit, ironically traveled the highways when Iowa’s speed limit used to be 75 miles per hour on the Interstate. A bill raising the speed limit on divided four-lane highways to 70 cleared a House committee, but doesn’t have the votes to clear the full House.