Court costs, fees updated by Holton City Commission

Motorists who get traffic tickets in Holton will soon be paying more in municipal court fees, according to action taken this week by the Holton City Commission.

During the commission’s regular meeting on Monday evening, commissioners approved a charter ordinance raising the city’s court costs from $65 to $85 after a study conducted by Holton City Manager Kerwin McKee of municipal court costs in 13 Kansas cities revealed that “our court costs are the lowest court costs around.”

Commissioners also approved an updated schedule of municipal court fines for misdemeanor offenses and infractions that McKee said coincided with the purchase of a new digiTicket electronic police ticketing system that was approved by commissioners in May. The commission last approved an update to the fine schedule in February of 2014.

The new fine schedule goes into effect on Aug. 1, commissioners noted, and the increased court cost takes effect 61 days after the second of two publications in The Holton Recorder, or Aug. 29. The charter ordinance setting the new court cost appears on Page 9 of today’s edition.

McKee said that in preparing to enter the new fine schedule — which includes several misdemeanors and infractions that had not previously been part of the city’s fine schedule — he reviewed court costs in 13 Kansas cities, finding that Holton’s court cost was below the average of those cities’ court costs, or about $93.42.

The other cities’ court costs, according to information provided by McKee, included $64 in St. Marys, $70 in Goodland, $75 in Iola, $78 in Derby, $85 in Valley Falls and Belleville, $95 in Halstead, $96 in Winfield, $103.50 in Neodesha, $108 in Jetmore, $110 in Herington, $120 in Junction City and $125 in Altamont.

Holton’s $65 court cost, in place since May of 2013, consisted of the city’s charge of $44.50 and the state’s court cost assessment of $20.50; at that time, it was noted that the city would be ahead of the state’s average municipal court cost of $62.59. The new court cost, McKee said, included the city’s charge of $61.50 and the state’s assessment of $23.50.

“We don’t want to be super high,” McKee said of the new court cost. “We’re still raising it a little bit, but we’re not making it real hard on our citizens.”

For more on this and other stories, please log in to your holtonrecorder.net account and select “June 22, 2022” under E-Editions.