In north St Louis County you’ll find a lot “cities” whose whole point is to raise taxes from airport hotels and fines for municipal violations. In a way these municipalities are acting as parasites on their residents as well as outsiders who pass through.
You make a good point about the “cities” near the airport and fines for municipal violations. For the record, though, Ferguson is not receiving taxes from hotels because there are no hotels in Ferguson. Nor is Ferguson receiving fines from outsiders who travel I-70. I-70 does not go through Ferguson.
No, you are right that Ferguson has neither hotels nor access to I-70 and the traffic fines it can engender. And it it is much larger population-wise than some of North County. But I believe there were problems found with its municipal court. How many of the problems were discovered by a hostile Justice Dept. and hostile press, I don’t know. It seems like a lot of little towns (not just in MO—Bell, Cal comes to mind) are basically set up as money-raising scams—with the force of law behind them.