A major monkey wrench in the fight to restrict speed cameras throughout the state. As the legislature continues considering Monroe Republican Senator Stewart Cathey’s bill to do away with the speed cameras, the House passed an amendment by a single vote to exempt Opelousas from any such rule. Cathey is clearly unhappy.
“They also eliminated all of the restrictions for Opelousas that we put in place last year that the representatives who brought the amendment said that they were doing such a good job of being. Well, now, they don’t have to obey those rules anymore because they don’t exist because of this amendment,” Cathey said.
It was proposed by Democrat Dustin Miller, who says Opelousas is short-staffed and doesn’t have enough manpower to conduct speed enforcement the traditional way. Cathey says the people of Opelousas should fight back.
“It would be nice if the people in Opelousas would rise up and say, ‘Look, we don’t like this, we don’t want it.’ I’d vote every elected official in Opelousas out of office that approved these speed cameras,” Cathey said.
Cathey says the Opelousas caveat creates a slippery slope – if Opelousas is exempt from these bills, Cathey fears other communities could seek the same exemptions. The overall bill passed in the House 72-23 and now goes back to the Senate to consider the House changes. Cathey says he’s completely unsure how to proceed, especially since he says he got 99%t of what he wanted.
“Is this a deal where we just come back next year? We take what we can get? Because we don’t want to lose the bill over that one little fight,” Cathey said.
Cathey already agreed to exempt school zones – two hours in the morning and two hours during after school hours. He says without the school zone exemption, his bill likely would not have passed.
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