BAIL BONDS

Governor Moon Beam first proposed elimination of the bail bond system in his 1979 inauguration speech. I wonder how many more lifetimes he will lead matters in such an important state.

The new system would allow judges to rate criminals and determine if they should stay in jail. If you have a serious felony, like third offense DUI or murder, you're going to stay put, I guess. Others, let 'em go.

Right now, the system acts as insurance that the offender will show up for their court date. If not, the bail agent is out his money (less the fees that are about 10% of the bond). Bond agents are not fond of forking over money because some knucklehead decided to skip, so they find them and drag them to court.

There are about 3,200 bail agents in California (and I would expect some support people?) and in 2014 they collected about $308 million in fees or roughly $100,000 average per agent. Take out all your expenses for rent, licenses (about $1,000 per after all included) and chasing down skips and it is a job, but not a great job.

Not only will the state lose the taxes, etc on the $300 million, implementation of the program is expected to cost $200 million per year. When was the last time a government project came in under budget?

The current system has faults. Seems like for a net cost to the state's economy in excess of half billion dollars (not counting the multiplier of economic activity), seems like some reforms might have been considered?

The ACLU was in favor, now not. Part of their perpetual employment plan.

Now, as you all know, I pretty much know nothing about bail bonds and have so far in my 73 years avoided needing one. Which is a pretty good thing because I can't remember phone numbers, even the simple ones that are plastered on the placards for these guys. But what a world we live in--I can opine about this stuff with not the foggiest idea of what I'm doing, sort of like a CNN correspondent.