By BJ Austin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-820038.mp3
Dallas, TX – Starting this week, if you have an overdue Dallas County traffic ticket or fine you'll have to pay it BEFORE you can get a new, annual vehicle registration sticker. KERA's BJ Austin says the county has 750 thousand outstanding citations on the books, worth 210 million dollars.
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price says the county needs that money. It's facing a 58 million dollar shortfall. But the Commissioner predicts a lot of people will be driving WITHOUT valid stickers, unable to pay.
Price: And then I've got to go and take care of at least one citation at 250 dollars, I've gotta make some decisions.
In the County Clerk's office, Fetina Green says the computer will flag SCOFFLAWS - names with unpaid tickets provided by the County to registration officials in Austin.
Green: At that time, we'll go over to our website: Dallascountywanted.com. We'll look it up by your name or license plate number, and then we'll bring up all the information of where you need to go, how much you owe.
Green says it must be paid IN FULL to get the registration sticker. The city of Dallas says now that the County has started blocking registrations for unpaid tickets, it will send its list of overdue citations to the state and join the program in the next several months.