The budget impasse may have claimed a new victim: an annual holiday shopping season sting on those illegally parking in handicapped spaces.
The sting has become a holiday tradition under Secretary of State Jesse White, with the Secretary of State police officers cracking down on people with misusing or forging disability placards at malls and shopping centers.
Secretary of State spokesman Dave Druker says with the state still operating without a budget, only a scaled-back version of the sting would be conducted, if it happens at all.
"Officers are doing other responsibilities right now, and that presents a problem, and the money situation is tight. Sometimes this has been done in the past with overtime and we don't have those resources at this point."
Druker says the decision has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the sting. When it was conducted in 2013, approximately 90 citations were handed out.
Druker says he doesn't know if local police has been alerted so they can check for violators themselves.
It's not the only effect the budget impasse is having on the office. Druker says landlords for the state's DMVs haven't been paid since June.
