The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously advances a bill that would do away with speed cameras in Louisiana. Under current law, all municipalities that use speed enforcement cameras in school zones need to have an agreement in place on how money collected would be split. However, the bill’s author, Monroe Republican Stewart Cathey, says some cities and towns are operating those cameras without such agreements. He told the committee that the speed cameras are nothing but a money grab.
“I have towns that are taking in more revenue in speed camera fines than they take in in property taxes, sales taxes, insurance premium taxes combined,” Cathey said.
Cathey says one village’s revenue illustrates that point.
“In the village of Clayton alone, in 2022, they did $21,000 worth of traffic violations. They put speed cameras in, and they went to $499,000 worth of revenue from these things,” Cathey said.
Cathey says an unscientific study found that speed cameras were less popular than herpes. And he says it’s not just the general public that doesn’t like them – many local lawmakers aren’t too thrilled with them either.
“I’ve got some instances where I’ve got councilmen saying, ‘I can’t wait till you do something about this.’ And so, it’s like we’re just outnumbered on the council. You know, you get the right two people on council, and it doesn’t matter,” Cathey said.
If passed and signed into law, people in city government could be charged with malfeasance in office for allowing for the operation of speed cameras in their cities. The bill now advances to the full Senate.
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