A Little Math Lesson

In today's Visalia Times Delta there is an article about some overdue fines owed the state of California.  The article was jumbled a bit and took a while to understand.  But after wading through the article, thank you Maureen, some interesting numbers became evident.

There appears to be many people that haven't paid fines they owe to the State.  These are just the medium to minor types of offenses such as running a red light, speeding or failure to appear in court. Excluded tickets are parking tickets, DUI's, reckless driving and driving with a suspended licence.  They also won't reduce the tickets if you have other outstanding tickets.  So I guess "real" citizen criminals don't get to partake of this end of the year gift.  Now comes the math.

How much is the State expecting to generate?  The article states that if only 2% of the tickets and fines are paid at the half price amount, $46 million will be generated.  $46 million.  I know I teach English, but Mrs. Veitch drilled Math into my head years ago for a reason.  If 2% equals $46 million, then 100% equals $2.3 BILLION.  Don't we have a money issue in Sacramento right now?  As in we, the State of California, are in need of money.

Seems to me if we, the Sate of California, collected what it is owed less taxes will have to be raised.  Just a Social Science/Ethics question to go with our Math lesson.

P.S. The tickets the State are counting are only those from 2009 and before.