Red Light Cameras in NC Going Extinct?

[CarrotNC]

North Carolina's state Senate Transportation Committee "voted Wednesday in favor of repealing laws that had granted ... the right to set up camera systems. Motorists caught running a light are fined $50. No insurance or driver's license points are issued." Story here: http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/story/9399953/

 

What caught my eye was the line in the article about "Most of the communities no longer run the cameras after an appeals court ruling found most of the revenues had to go to the public schools". Had to look that one up and found this article from 2007: http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/18/1834.asp which says 90% of revenue collected from "automated enforcement systems" has to go to public schools.

 

I find it funny how redirection of the collected funds led to a drop in use of the systems. And now the few holdout cities still using these systems are having even that privilege taken away, at least in my state.

[steve.foote]

They couldn't be all about the money. No-ho-ho-ho, that couldn't be it.

[FLrider]

In Florida, some medical group was able to get a rather large percentage of the $175 fine to go to spinal injury medical research.... Must have raised a lot of money for the congressman who introduced that bill!

[Ken H.]

Where would you propose the money go instead?

[beemerman2k]

Where would you propose the money go instead?

 

Roads and highways, maybe? A reduction in taxes, tolls, excise taxes or even gasoline taxes would be a good idea, too. But when the State gets to enjoy the plunder from ticketing it's citizens, you now have an "us against them" scenario. It's in the interest of the State to nail you, and that's not a good situation.

 

Turn it around and pour the money back into the resources for the drivers who paid out in the first place, and now you have much greater likelihood of support because the vehicle owners who are providing the funds now benefit from the policy. Now, the populace actually wants the cameras installed.

[CarrotNC]

Where would you propose the money go instead?

 

Where the money goes should not decide whether a specific law is enforced. Based on the logic presented it would seem if we removed the financial incentive for a municipality to enforce any law, then they'd stop enforcing them. Consider speeding tickets -- if the cost of the stop exceeded the revenue generated, would the agency continue to conduct them?

[Nice n Easy Rider]

Where would you propose the money go instead?

Ken, I won't presume to answer your question for Gary, but as another North Carolinian I was struck by the fact that when the courts mandated that the monies go to the public schools most of the municipalities stopped using the red light cameras. I think the assumption that many would make here is that the municipalities had wanted to use the monies for purposes other than the schools and when blocked from doing so they determined that school funding wasn't a sufficiently high priority to maintain these camera programs. It would be interesting to know what programs would have been higher on their priority lists.