Only on interstate highways and only when the local government is NOT home rule charter.

Essentially, home rule charter has to do with local and parish governments that are of a minimum size electing to write their own plan of government versus using the state's plan. I believe in Louisiana, local governments must have at least 5,000 citizens to invoke home rule in order to decide for themselves how their legislative, judicial, and executive branches will be structured, how they will handle taxation for funding, how they will issue bonds for improvements, etc. As long as it isn't at odds with the Louisiana or U.S. Constitutions, home rule allows the people to decide for themselves how their local governments will be structured and run instead of how Baton Rouge says they should be.

The speeding law basically prevents little pissant towns with an interstate running through them from hammering people with minor infractions to fund their little pissant towns as a kind of replacement for taxation that may be hard or otherwise illegal for them to implement. Will 1000 people decide to tax themselves when they can write 30 bullshite tickets a day instead? Even if they wanted to tax themselves, do those 1000 people have legal standing under state law to enact and levy a tax? When they start writing tickets in lieu of proper taxation, it looks bad, especially to non-locals or out-of-staters who get a $200 ticket for 1 mph over the speed limit. So, the legislature stepped in and said "we won't stop you guys from writing those tickets because money, but we can and will dictate where the fines go to discourage bullshite tickets because you're not home ruled".

All bets are off on state highways or local roads, though, as the law only applies to interstate highways. I guess the thinking is that non-interstate roadways are more likely to carry locals who know better than to speed in those little towns. Also, home rule jurisdictions rule themselves so the law doesn't apply to the portions of interstate highways that run through those local governments. Their governments operate within the confines of the state but as "more separate" entities than non home ruled localities. Accordingly, the state recognizes the separation of governments and that local home ruled governments have local jurisdiction to decide how they will write tickets, and collect and use fines under the uniform traffic code.

This post was edited on 10/22/18 at 6:40 pm