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Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, sponsors the bill, which would allow municipalities to fund a maximum of 10 percent of their budgets from revenue generated from traffic tickets. Currently, ticket income is capped at 30 percent of a city's budget. Anything more is supposed to be sent to the state to spend on education.

But Schmitt said enforcement of the current law is lax.

"The most fruitful discussion about the bill will be, 'What do we do on the back end if you're violating and what are the consequences?' Because it has to have some teeth," he said.

Reforming municipal courts became a rallying cry of activists after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer last August. Some of St. Louis County's 81 municipal courts have been described as debtors' prisons that force the poor to pay large fines for minor traffic offenses.

Schmitt said he has found support for his bill from "both ends of the political spectrum," ranging from conservatives who view the courts as overreaching to liberals who "see how it's affecting real people."

Lowering the cap on traffic-case revenue to 10 percent was suggested in , a nonprofit that advocates for consolidation of local governments.

That study was sponsored by the , a nonprofit funded in large part by retired investment fund executive Rex Sinquefield.

The study found that in 2013, municipal courts in St. Louis and St. Louis County collected $61 million in fines and fees. That's 46 percent of all municipal fines and fees statewide, even though St. Louis and St. Louis County are home to only 22 percent of Missourians, the report said.

A nonprofit legal team, ArchCity Defenders, issued to the municipal court problems.

Schmitt's bill will be heard by the Senate Jobs, Economic Development and Local Government Committee, which he chairs. The meeting will be held in the ornate Senate Lounge on the Capitol's third floor.

(Schmitt's bill is .)