Here's a big surprise... The Red Light Camera program's future depends on how the numbers come out after a "crunching." Almighty Marty told KOB-TV that they're "crunching the numbers and seeing what we have, and then we’ll go forward."
You see the legislature finally passed a bill or two that address the red light toll program instituted here in The Eye's home city. One of them caps the civil fines at $100 and requires that 1/3 of that amount go to courthouses and drivers education programs. The cap also has the effect of stealing the cream from the cash cow by putting a fork in the rapid fine acceleration and making the 2 year citation period moot. So after a little number "crunching" of our own, we find that about $65 either goes to the state or to Red Flex and Marty gets about $35. (Read our analysis here.)
Of the $35 the city should be able to pay for its Hearing Office ($15.65) and officer review ($9.60). Marty will end up taking home a cool $9.75 profit per citation. If you figure roughly 80,000 citations a year then the city will actually turn a profit of $780,000. That's a far cry from the $5 MILLION that they're bagging now... but this is about public safety right?
We're not fans of this program... and the bills headed to the Governor's desk (the second bill requires warning lights or rumble strips before intersections) don't address the serious problems that we have with the process. You will still be charged and tried by people who work for the Almighty One (Mayor Marty), but at least some of the profit motive will be removed and we won't be kept on a two year leash designed to keep us feeding city ambitions with our hard earned cash.
We would encourage Governor Richardson to sign both pieces of legislation and let's see if it's about public safety, or as we suspect... it's all about the money.
If you'd like to see the Governor reign-in the Imperial City, you can call him at (505) 827-3000 and let him know you'd like to see him sign both red light camera related bills.
----- More Information -----
You can find more information about the two Red Light Camera Bills passed by the Legislature here.
2 comments:
RIGHT ON!!!
Call the Gov., and stop Marty from
robbing us and getting back door monies for his next campaign for the Governors race. This is how it works . I give you the contract, you kick me money back in the form of donations for future campaigns. That's how it works folks. Did we not learn that in the Vigil scam, where the Securities Manager made millions in commissions at Wachovia, and make huge contributions back to King Bill for his last Gubernatorial campaign. Is it now clear?
In other words, we the taxpayers are paying for political campaigns via graft. Nice huh?
If you can't put a price on a life then the numbers wouldn't matter. Seems that Smarty Marty's little plan is falling apart. A captain with the APD said that Smarty Marty was pissed because things weren't going his way in Santa Fe. HE can't threaten and intimidate people with their jobs at the state level. What a loney LITTLE man!
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