The House Transportation Committee today advanced the county-requested proposal that would share state revenues from uncontested traffic fines.

House Bill 1749 passed 12-0. It was amended lightly, with the effective date moving from July 1, 2012, to Jan. 1, 2013. The space for a percentage to be shared with the counties is still blank, and will likely remain empty at least until the House Finance Committee gets a crack at the bill, if it even makes it that far.

Both the bill and the justification for it from the Hawaii State Association of Counties are silent on how big the pot is, so it’s not clear how much money we’d be talking about even if we did know what percentage was to be shared.

The bill got a triple referral, so Judiciary comes before Finance.