Northwest Indiana Discussion

Red light camera push starts again
BY PATRICK GUINANE
pguinane@nwitimes.com
317.637.9078 | Monday, August 18, 2008
http://www.nwi.com/articles/2008/08/18/news/top_news/docd3e6396cc5e58ad4862574a90004aba3.txt

INDIANAPOLIS | A move to let Indiana cities install cameras to catch drivers running red lights is expected to fare better with Indiana lawmakers next year, now that new state tax caps are driving municipal budgets into the red.

The last attempt to allow the traffic cameras failed overwhelmingly three years ago in the Indiana House, where it garnered only 17 of the 51 votes needed to pass. Several opponents cited privacy concerns.

But that was before lawmakers created tax caps that are expected to deprive Indiana cities and towns of nearly $97 million next year and $188 million in 2010. State Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, argues those figures should help give red light legislation a better shot next year.

"I think when we dealt with it before we weren't concerned about dollars," she said. "But I think that the addition of dollars to the discussion would aid and assist it."

Rogers has begun drafting a red light camera bill for the legislative session that will start in January. Her hometown of Gary is expected to lose $36.7 million next year to the new tax caps, more than any city in the state.

Hammond, which faces at least $1.3 million in 2009 budget cuts, adopted an ordinance in June that sought to make the city the first in Indiana to install red light cameras. But Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter stepped in last week with an advisory opinion concluding the Legislature must act first.

Carter pulled the plug only a day after Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich proposed installing cameras to catch speeding motorists on accident-prone interstate corridors. The idea was spurred by the estimated $50 million a year it could raise to hire state troopers.

Illinois already uses cameras to catch speeders in highway work zones. And three dozen Illinois municipalities, including Chicago, deploy red light cameras. Nationwide, the technology is in use in more than 300 communities, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The Indiana Association of Cities and Towns and the Insurance Institute of Indiana supported past attempts to allow red light cameras, and spokesmen for both groups say they would back the effort again next year.

"We have supported it in the past, not necessarily because of a money issue but because it acts as a deterrent to motorists running red lights," said Matt Brase, director of government affairs for the Indiana Association of Cites and Towns.

The 2005 legislation, which cleared the Indiana Senate on a 31-17 vote, would have created a pilot program to test the red light cameras in up to 10 cities. Violators could have been fined up to $100, the penalty Hammond prescribed in its ordinance.

The mayors of Lafayette and West Lafayette last week announced plans to lobby legislators for another shot at red light cameras next year. A test camera installed at a busy intersection in Lafayette recorded 135 cars running red lights during a 24-hour period in May.

Asked about the issue this week, Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels and his opponent for November, Democrat Jill Long Thompson, said they believed they could support legislation to allow red light cameras.

"It's in use in many places. I can think of lots of other enforcement tools that are at least as aggressive as that," Daniels said. "I'd listen to both sides, but I'm open-minded about that. If it would help improve traffic safety, compliance with the law, be cost-efficient to the taxpayer, we ought to think about it."