Civil fines include parking tickets and library fines.
Money from the fines goes into the state's general fund or is funneled back to the agencies that collect them, such as a police department or library.
But Wake County Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones ruled Dec. 14 that local public schools are the rightful recipients of civil fines.
Jones based his verdict on a provision of the N.C. Constitution mandating that all fines and penalties should be allocated for maintaining free public schools.
His ruling was the result of a lawsuit filed against the state in 1998 by the N.C. School Board Association and several county school boards. The boards sued to make the state enforce a constitutional rule requiring that fines levied in a county remain in that county.
But Jones has stayed the ruling until an appellate court hears the case, which state officials decided to appeal.
If uphold by the appellate court, the ruling will redirect about $75 million that is collected from civil fines statewide.
Under the ruling, the UNC-CH Department of Public Safety will no longer receive revenue from parking tickets issued on campus. Instead, the fines will be turned over to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School System.
Currently, the UNC system collects about $4 million each year in parking fines, which will be redistributed as a result of the ruling.
