$58,000 speeding ticket based on millionaire’s income

HELSINKI — Getting a speeding ticket is not a feel-good moment for anyone. But consider Reima Kuisla, a Finnish businessman.

He was recently fined 54,024 euros ($58,000) for traveling a modest, if illegal, 64 mph in a 50 mph zone. And no, the 54,024 euros did not turn out to be a typo, or a mistake of any kind.

Kuisla is a millionaire, and in Finland the fines for more serious speeding infractions are calculated according to income. The thinking is that if it stings for the little guy, it should sting for the big guy, too.

The ticket had its desired effect. Kuisla, 61, took to Facebook last month with 12 furious posts in which he included a picture of his speeding ticket and a picture of what 54,024 euros could buy if it was not going to the state coffers — a new Mercedes. He said he was seriously considering leaving Finland altogether.

The Nordic countries have long had a strong egalitarian streak, embracing progressive taxation and high levels of social spending. Perhaps less well known is that they also practice progressive punishment, when it comes to certain fines. A rich person, many citizens here believe, should pay more for the same offense if justice is to be served. The question is: How much more?

The size of Kuisla’s ticket drew considerable attention, as television shows and newspapers debated the merits of Finland’s system, which uses a complex formula based on income to calculate an individual’s fines. Some wondered whether the government should stop imposing such fines for infractions at relatively low speeds. Some suggested that a fine so big was really a form of taxation.

But the idea that the rich should pay heavier fines did not seem to be much in question.

“It is an old system,” said Pasi Kemppainen, chief superintendent at the National Police Board. “It may lead to high fines, but only for people who can afford it.”

Kuisla’s $58,000 ticket is not even the most severe speeding ticket issued in recent years. According to another daily newspaper, Ilkka, Kuisla himself got an even bigger fine in 2013 when he was going 76 mph in a 50 mph zone. That ticket was for 63,448 euros, about $83,769 at the time.

Bigger yet was the ticket issued to a Nokia executive in 2002, when he was caught blowing through Helsinki on his Harley motorcycle and was hit with a $103,600 fine, based on a $12.5 million yearly income. Both tickets were appealed and in the end reduced.