Well, I did some poking around. MADD is getting $175 per DWI in Dallas [Ed Note: We received a letter from a MADD volunteer taking issue with this figure but we were unable to verify his claims (see comments below).].

There were approximately 10,000 DWI convictions in Dallas last year. That works out to $1,750,000.00. Now, keep in mind that Dallas is in the midst of a crime wave. If that money were funneled into the City's coffers, that would be enough to hire 45 more full time officers at the current starting pay. That's without raising taxes, selling bonds, or dipping into any other programs.

MADD has become a serious gravy train for a lot of people, paying their top ranking people $200,000 and up in salary. The received more than $3,000,000 from "forcing" (their word) people into their "VIP Panels" as part of their sentencing in 2004. I'm sure that those figures were more in 2005 and 2006. The numbers for 2007 are obviously not available yet.

Think about what the City could do if all the money that's going into other pockets were put back into the City. I'm also quite interested in knowing if these "charities" are contributing to the judges election campaigns. So much for a fair and impartial judicial system.