http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/editorials/boynton-beach-comes-clean-1605011.html

Boynton Beach comes clean

Opinion blog
 

Finally, a South Florida city has been honest enough to admit why it has a red-light camera program.

That city would be Boynton Beach, which, like most cities in Florida, faces yet another budget deficit. The latest projected shortage is about $1.2 million, and the city already has cut positions, reduced services, moved money around, refinanced bonds and prayed for property values to stop dropping.

Salvation, though, may come from the cameras that for so long we have heard are all about safety, not money. Yet there was Police Chief Matt Immler telling the Boynton Beach City Commission during Monday's budget hearing that the cameras, in use only since May, already look like moneymakers. The first four have taken in about $105,000. Eight more will be installed soon. If enough drivers blow through red lights, endangering themselves and others, maybe the city's budget problem will be over.

If we seem to be singling out Boynton Beach, it's only because of the serial dishonesty at every level of government in Florida about red-light cameras, which are fraudulent and almost certainly unconstitutional. They got some attention 12 years ago, when a red-light runner killed three couples west of Boca Raton. The cameras' recent popularity, however, has tracked with shrinking state, county and city budgets.

Governments desperate for revenue seek to profit from reckless behavior. After all, if a city or county installs the cameras and drivers observe the lights, the city or county loses money, because it must pay the company that operates the cameras. The state dealt itself into the con game by taking a chunk of the fine.

It is ironic to hear a police chief tout the revenue potential of red-light cameras. Still, Chief Immler deserves points for candor. He just said what everyone has known all along.

- Randy Schultz,

for The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board
 

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