Although it seems these days that all the momentum is for cities and counties in Florida to increase the use of red-light cameras, a South Florida legislator wants to ban their use.
On Tuesday a bill sponsored by Hialeah Republican Renne Garcia passed out of its first Senate committee passed. It would repeal current law allowing the cameras and remove them from state roads by July. The Cuban-American Garcia says the cameras represent too much government, saying, "I come from a community that fears government. They left their homeland because of Big Brother watching them on every corner."
The Tallahassee Democrat reports that the cameras – which are going up in communities all the time in the state – would raise $158 million in the next fiscal year – with $70 million going for the state and $71.7 million for local government.
Hillsborough County enacted such cameras last year, and Major Ray Lawton from the County's Sheriff's Department said 10 cameras have gone up at six intersections that had high crash numbers. In the five years before the cameras were installed the intersections saw an average of 523 crashes a year. Last year, the number was cut nearly in half to 270.
The Tampa City Council last week deadlocked 3-3 on a proposal to implement such cameras. The legislation would have installed cameras at 20 of the worst intersections for crashes the city, but Council member Charlie Miranda said he would only support the bill if the city's cut of the $158 fine would go directly to improve those specific intersections, but Iorio administration officials said the money would and should go directly into the general fund.
This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2011.