State Sen. Eric Schmitt of Glendale makes a compelling case for municipal court reform. His argument is that too many municipalities are too reliant on traffic tickets and fines for their operating revenue.He can rattle off a list of small municipalities in the St. Louis area that are generating a disproportionate amount of their revenue from traffic ticket fines and fees to bolster his arguments that some cities are abusing the municipal court system.One of those cities is Pine Lawn, a six-tenths of a square-mile municipality which abuts the western edge of St. Louis. It derives more than 70 percent of its general operating revenue from its municipal court. That’s ridiculous by any measuring stick.Schmitt doesn’t duck the fact that the epicenter of the problem is the St. Louis region which accounts for about 22 percent of the state’s population but nearly 50 percent of its traffic tickets.One of the factors driving that statistic is that St. Louis County is comprised of 90 different municipalities — 81 of which operate a municipal court. This unique situation contributes to the problem. When city revenues dip, it is tempting to make up the difference from the municipal courts.It can also lead to a culture of distrust between residents and police who are writing the tickets. That is why municipal court reform is often mentioned in the same breath as larger reforms in the wake of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson. Schmitt and others say that the victims of some of the abuses that are being perpetuated by some of the offending municipalities are usually poor and minorities who can’t afford to pay the tickets.It’s hard for us to draw a straight line from what happened in Ferguson and the need for municipal court reforms. They are two separate issues that have been conflated in the aftermath of the shooting and subsequent discussions over race relations.But that’s not to say some improvements couldn’t help our municipal courts system, especially in the St. Louis area where the problem is pronounced.Schmitt has filed legislation that would reduce the amount of revenue a city may collect through traffic fines and tickets to 10 percent of its total general fund revenue from the current ceiling of 30 percent.His bill, as well as other proposals from the legal community ­­— which include setting standard fines for the same offenses and allowing poor defendants to pay fines in installments or work them off through community service ­­— make sense and should be further examined.But likewise, everyone involved in this process should be cautious about mandating a statewide “one-size-fits-all” solution for what is largely a St. Louis problem. The fact is most municipal courts in our state operate properly and fairly. Calls by some groups to abolish the courts altogether or granting amnesty to those who have warrants for failing to appear in court are misguided.Schmitt’s 10 percent threshold may even be unrealistic for some communities. Take Foristell, for instance. The small community of 505 people near the Warren/St. Charles County line has long enjoyed a nationwide reputation as a speed trap. It currently has six officers on its police force.In past years, the town has exceeded the current 30 percent threshold and been forced to refund small amounts of municipal court revenue back to the state.  Schmitt’s law would mean it would have to refund even more revenue or cut back on enforcement. Hooray, it’s about time, some would probably respond.  But Foristell officials respond they are only doing their job which is to protect the public. Sure they write a lot of tickets, but as their chief of police has said before, if everyone knows the town is a speed trap why do motorists still exceed the speed limit?But when you also consider the Foristell department responded to over 135 accidents and made 116 DWI arrests last year — mostly along I-70 or on the overpasses coming into the community — you can make a case that they are just doing their job.It isn’t hard to see why Foristell officials oppose Schmitt’s bill.People don’t like traffic tickets but experience tells us that most of the time, in most Missouri communities, they are written in good faith for real safety violations and not to pad city coffers.