Town of Hempstead must address bus fine mess

The idea is simple enough. Cameras on school buses record any vehicle failing to immediately stop when children are boarding or being dropped off. Motorists are then fined, through the mail, as with other photo-captured violations. No driver needs to be told that passing a stopped bus under these conditions can result in a tragedy. The point of the camera is to discourage such behavior.

But in the Town of Hempstead, the administration of this program has been flawed and improperly enforced, feeding the suspicion of a government cash grab.

Every school district within the town is supposed to have either signed up for this program or opted out. Despite that legal requirement, Newsday's news division reports, the Town of Hempstead last year issued about 36,000 tickets in and around school districts that chose not to participate. That's worth about $9 million if collected.

Most of these tickets, or 20,711, came from within Hempstead Village. The others were in Valley Stream, Baldwin and Lawrence. Under the contract, the town gets 55% of the fine income and BusPatrol, the vendor, receives 45%. But neither party seems to have an incentive to sacrifice revenues by complying with the requirement that the school districts must approve the camera program.

What's disturbing is government inaction in correcting an unfair problem. The town and BusPatrol have long since been aware of this ticketing outside the agreed-upon districts — and didn't promptly correct the situation.

Most curiously, a year and a half ago the town called for the cancellation of citations in districts that rejected the program. Hempstead Town Attorney John Maccarone wrote to BusPatrol's chief executive on Jan. 23, 2025, and stated: "This is troubling and indicates that in its current state, the program is potentially overreaching its legal authority."

Four months later, however, the town told Newsday that BusPatrol determined none of the tickets were improperly issued. Now ticketed drivers are looking for relief in a class-action lawsuit in federal court. If refunds are deemed due, it will be a while before they are paid.

Tickets are still being issued in those four unauthorized districts. This needs to stop now before the problem gets worse.

Drivers would not have even had to go to court if the town and its contractor had fixed the errors quickly. Town Supervisor John Ferretti took office last summer, and although the shoddy fines began before he was sworn in, this is his mess to explain and help solve.

Altering anticipated revenues on the town's books, and returning funds already collected, could throw the TOH budget out of balance as Ferretti and other officials face reelection in November.

Joe Scianablo, the Democratic nominee for supervisor, promises to "make sure that every improperly collected dollar is returned to taxpayers." That's a valid goal. Ferretti would do well to take up the challenge first.