But there’s still plenty of skepticism, including from Lake Crystal Police Chief and state Rep. Tony Cornish, who has sponsored bills in the past to prohibit cities and counties from setting up their own system of traffic fines.

Rep. Larry Hosch, DFL-St. Joseph, is getting closer to an acceptable compromise, Cornish said.

Still, the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association is still overwhelmingly opposed.

And passage of Hosch’s bill could bring a flood of cities and counties instituting administrative penalty programs, which would reduce revenue coming to the state through fines and steep surcharges the state has attached to fines in recent years. That’s likely to be a concern when the state is already struggling to fill a $4.6 billion budget shortfall.

“It creates a huge hole in the state budget without that revenue coming in,” Cornish said.

Finn, though, wonders if the revenue impact is exaggerated. There’s some evidence from cities already using administrative penalties that officers — reluctant to hit a minor offender with a state fine/fee penalty that now tops $120 — primarily use the less expensive administrative penalty as an alternative to warning a driver.

Keeping traffic offenses out of the court system would also reduce costs for an already overburdened court system, Finn said.

Whatever happens in the Legislature — short of legislation passing that bans administrative penalties — North Mankato appears ready to finally get going.

Police Chief Chris Boyer is supportive of the idea, saying it would give his officers another tool to use in enforcing traffic laws and other violations.

It would also mean a new revenue source for a city scouring its budget in the face of deep reductions in state aid.

“We’re not going to get rich on it,” Zellmer said. “But it might help us offset some of the costs.”