I can't tell you that you're wrong about the county's motivation, especially in this economy.  But that's impossible to prove, and so it really won't help you with this.

You can appeal.  The difficulty is that the judge is allowed to choose who to believe, and typically police officers are believed in traffic court, unless there is something stronger than the police officer's testimony on the defendant's side.  Your testimony as the defendant is obviously coming from someone with an interest in getting off, is the reasoning, so you needed something more -- and you can't introduce that something more in the appeal.

I think you are wasting your effort to appeal.  Speeding is a 'strict liability' offense - you don't have to know you were nor do you have to have intended to speed. You had a trial, you presented your evidence (note: statements as to what a person - even a cop - are 'evidence')  and the court ruled against you.  Speeding tickets are very hard to beat.  My suggestion is to pay the fine and be done with it.