Members of the Arizona state Senate Transportation Committee took the first step in an effort to thwart the massive expansion of speed cameras proposed by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano (D). By a 3-2 vote, the panel recommended a permanent ban on all freeway photo enforcement, which would deal a significant blow to Napolitano's plan to raise $165 million in annual revenue by issuing between 1.2 and 2 million automated speeding tickets statewide.

Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Ron Gould (R-Lake Havasu) also sponsored similar ban legislation last year which failed when offered. This year, the scale of Napolitano's plan helped rally additional support. Nonetheless, Gould expects the governor would veto the bill, if adopted by the full state House and Senate. To avoid this, the committee also recommended passage of Senate Concurrent Resolution 1032 which would, without the governor's signature, give voters the right to decide whether they want the program to continue. No photo enforcement program has ever survived a referendum. Voters rejected camera ticketing in Peoria, Arizona in the 1990s and in Steubenville, Ohio in 2006.

To cover all possibilities, the committee adopted a third measure, SCR 1033, which would, if approved in a voter referendum, ban the use of photo radar to issue tickets to motorists traveling with the general and safe flow of traffic.

Article Excerpt:

State of Arizona
Senate
Forty-eighth Legislature, Second Regular Session, 2008

SB 1470
Introduced by Senator Gould; Representative Groe

AN ACT amending title 28, chapter 3, article 6, Arizona Revised Statutes, by adding section 28-711; relating to photo enforcement.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Title 28, chapter 3, article 6, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 28-711, to read:

28-711. Photo enforcement system; prohibition; highways

A photo enforcement system shall not be used on state highways to detect violators of this article.