COLUMBUS, Ohio – Amid a losing streak in the courts, majority Ohio House Republicans hope that withholding state funding from cities finally will end the use of traffic cameras to ticket red-light-running and speeding motorists.
The House plan would require communities that use the photo-monitoring devices to enforce traffic laws to file a report with the state auditor accounting for the total fines they’ve collected since a new law came into effect last month. Those amounts would then be deducted from their local government fund payments. If a municipality fails to file its report, the state could withhold its local government payments entirely.
Ohio’s new law requires that law enforcement officers be present when cameras are used to catch speeding motorists or red-light runners.
The move comes after judges in Akron, Dayton and Toledo granted injunctions to block the enforcement of a new state law that constituted an effective ban on traffic camera enforcement. Several cities, including Columbus, have filed lawsuits challenging the law as violating their home-rule authority granted by the Ohio Constitution.
The GOP proposal was lambasted by Columbus city officials, according to a report in the Columbus Dispatch.
City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. was beyond upset. “Your newspaper would not allow my quotes to be printed,” he said.
“In the face of evidence these cameras reduce accidents and save lives, they’re banned? Why? They’re ignoring the evidence, but they have the power,” Pfeiffer said of lawmakers.
The proposal would represent a multimillion-dollar hit for cities that already have chafed at cuts in state funding in past budgets. Prior to the law, traffic-camera fines totaled about $73 million statewide.
The law that took effect March 23 required cities to station police officers at locations where cameras are being operated. Cities responded that the edict would cost too much, making the cameras a money loser.