HARRISBURG, June 30, 2012 – More than three years after her first bill was introduced, Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione today praised House passage of a measure that will raise revenue for State Police training classes while creating a fairer fine-distribution system.   Senate Bill 237 passed the House with an overwhelming majority  tonight and heads to the governor’s desk.

The bill is expected to raise as much as $4 million for cadet training, while municipalities that provide less than 40 hours of local police coverage will lose their share of fines collected through State Police traffic stops.

“More and more municipalities have ended local police coverage to depend on state police,” Tartaglione said.  “We have not been training enough new troopers to keep up. The House action tonight begins to reverse that trend.”

Under current law, half of the traffic-enforcement fines collected through state police patrols in a local municipality are returned to the municipality through a Motor License Fund formula – even if the municipality relies only on the state for police protection.

Senate Bill 237 will deny distribution of traffic-fine revenue from the Motor License Fund to any municipality that does not provide locally for at least 40 hours of coverage per week through its own force or a regional contract.  Municipalities with fewer than 3,000 residents are exempt.

 The bill, first introduced by Tartaglione in the 2009-10 session as SB 225, passed the Senate Transportation Committee unanimously more than a year ago.  It is expected to affect about 1,200 municipalities across Pennsylvania.