With their victory passing statewide speed cameras one might think Big Brother would take a breather before pushing the line any farther. Apparently not so for a few lawmakers.
Sen. David Harrington from Prince George's County has sponsored a new bill, PG307-10, which would authorize the cameras on two specific roads -- Chillum Road and Sargent Road. Apparently Prince George's County found a few small segments of road where they could not legally create new school zones solely for the purpose of deploying speed cameras, as was done by Baltimore City and almost every town in Prince George's County which has authorized the cameras so far. (Towns and counties had the ability to create school zones long before Senate Bill 277 was passed in 2009 -- in fact SB 277 did not change the criteria for or definition of school zones at all -- but those local governments never thought it was worthwhile to create these school zones until the revenue motive for adding cameras was introduced). PG307-10 would allow cameras to be added on these two additional roads without the need to create school zones. This would set a precedent for creating case-by-case exemptions for any location which does not meet the existing legal criteria for using speed cameras.
Elsewhere, Montgomery County Delegation chairman Brian Feldman is sponsoring bill MC10-10 which would create a new revenue sharing system between Montgomery County and small towns like Poolsville and Barnesville. Currently towns which do not have their own police forces or speed camera programs have had cameras placed on roads in their jurisdiction by the county. However unlike towns which run their own programs (such as Takoma Park or Chevy Chase Village) do not receive a cut of that revenue. Strangely enough, some of those towns have complained about the cameras when they do not get their piece of the pie. A "side benefit" to this legislation would be that towns with particularly lucrative cameras in their jurisdictions (such as those managed by Chevy Chase) would have the option of turning them over to the county and issue twice as many citations before hitting the revenue cap built into SB 277, with the revenue divided between the local jurisdiction and the county rather than going to the state -- even if (as is the case of affluent Chevy Chase Village) the town's cameras are on state owned roads paid for with state tax dollars.
The above bills would need to be approved by both the state House of Delegates and Senate and if so would take effect October 1, 2010. However we predict that there will not be major changes to speed camera laws this year because all state lawmakers are all up for re-election in November 2010, and many would prefer that the hundreds of thousands of voters who will receive those citations will not recall their 2009 voting record on statewide speed cameras, which you can see HERE.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
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Our Top Stories
- Rockville Falsely Accuses School Bus of Speeding
- Montgomery County Has Secret Speed Camera Committee -- Press and Critics Not Welcome
- Montgomery Speed Camera "OmBudsman" Won't Answer Questions
- Montgomery County Issues Erroneous Tickets
- College Park Cited Stationary Bus for Speeding
- Montgomery County ATEU Defends Culture of Secrecy
- How Two-Faced Triple-A Gave Maryland Speed Cameras
- "Secret" Baltimore Speed Camera Audit Found 10% Error Rate
- Speed Camera Reform Act Just a Big Fat Lie
- Court Rules Against Morningside on Public Records Access
- Speed Camera Company Celebrates "Bounty System" Loophole
- Montgomery County Steals Lanes for Expensive Bus Program
- Wicomico County Teachers Say Camera is Not Accurate
- Montgomery Council President Rice Racked Up Tickets
- Circuit Court Rules Innocence is a Defense, Rejects "Snitch" Requirement
- Baltimore Ends Camera Contract, Moves to Hides Records
- Montgomery Scamera Boss Lies About Red Light Camera "Warning Flashes"
- Montgomery County Camera Boss Blocks Public From Secret Meeting
- Salisbury Records Show Calibration Lapses, Sorry No Refunds!!
- Speed Camera Accuracy Questioned in Morningside
- Attorny General Gansler Depicted as "Reckless Passenger"
- Morningside Deployed Cameras Despite County Denial
- Morningside Admits Maintaining No Calibration Records, Doesn't Operate Own Cameras
- ACLU Documents Mass Tracking of Motorists By License Plate Scannrs
- Brekford Demands Tribute to See Calibration Records
- Access To Brekford Calibration Records Stalled in Salisbury, Morningside
- Public and Private Lobbyists Worked to Kill Speed Camera Reform
- Montgomery County Speed Camera Transforms Toyota into Dodge
- Montgomery County Boasts Error Rate "Under Ten Percent"
- Speed Camera Company Collects Dirt on Competitors
- Woman Gets 3 Tickets from DC Without Going There
- Legislature Raises Gas Tax
- Laurel, Hagerstown Circumvent Calibration Requirement
- Speed Camera Calibration Fails To Ensure Accuracy
- Speed Camera Programs Flout Sunshine Law
- Xerox Admits 5% Error Rate For Speed Camera Tickets
- Baltimore Cites Motionless Car For Speeding
- O'Malley Says Speed Camera Bounties Are Illegal
- Baltimore Ticketed Innocent Delivery Vehicle: Documents Prove Speed Camera Error
- Rockville Sees Huge Surge in Red Light Violations
- Trucking Company Challenges Accuracy of Baltimore Citations: Videos Prove Speed Camera Errors
- Speed Camera Salesman Caught Speeding AGAIN
- Riverdale Park Defends Forgery of Police Signatures
- High Court Rules Local Governments Above the Law
- Riverdale Park Allowed Civilians to Forge Police Approvals
- Baltimore Speed Camera Issues Ticket to the Dead
- Statewide Speed Cameras Now a $77Million Per Year Industry
- PG County Court Presumes All Defendants Guilty
- Town Releases Documents Proving Errors With Optotraffic Cameras
- Man arrested for asserting innocence in speed camera hearing
- Optotraffic Representative Caught Speeding
- Driver Uses Carchip to Challenge Optotraffic Camera
- Deceased Baltimore Cop Signs 2000 Citations
- Montgomery County Denies Right To Face Camera Operator In Court
- ACS Buys Steak Dinners For Lawmakers
- Baltimore City Issues Hundreds of Tickets in Error
- Baltimore Writes Speed Camera Revenues Into Budget Before Cameras Approved
- Camera Mistakenly Accuses Driver of 100mph Rampage
- Montgomery County Scamera Contract Includes Massive PR Campaign
- Optotraffic Investigates Possible Speed Camera Errors
- Speed Camera Legislation Attracts Lobbyists
- Sykesville Voters Overturn Speed Cameras in Referendum
- Traffic Engineering Techniques Out-perform Speed Cameras
- Transportation Planning Board Unveils Plan to Track and Tax Drivers
