Klosing the Kalifornia Budget Gap: Katch Speeders!

In these tough times, governments have to try any sneaky way they can to tax people.  Raising taxes, as Kalifornia has done, just isn’t enough.  Now, if you speed in Kalifornia, you’re going to pay… big time (unless you run without a front license plate):

Tucked deep into the budget that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled Friday is a plan to give cities and counties the green light to install speed sensors on red-light cameras to catch — and ticket — speeding cars.

Those whizzing by the radar-equipped detectors at up to 15 mph over the limit would have to pay $225 per violation. Those going faster would be fined $325.

In Beverly Hills, for instance, there are nine red-light cameras, which could catch 835 speeders a month, the Schwarzenegger administration estimated.

That would add up to big bucks for cash-strapped California — about $337.9 million through June 2011 — to pay for state courts. Every year after that, the program would generate nearly half a billion dollars, the Finance Department says. Local governments would get a share.

This bill of goods was sold on account of it improving safety:

The proposal also touted safety: “There would be . . . fewer accidents and injuries to drivers, passengers and pedestrians.”

Funny… the same thing was said about red light cameras, too, though this was a lie:

Researchers at the University of South Florida Public Health have released a study that shows a significant spike in accidents at intersections that use cameras to catch light runners. Why? Drivers are more likely to slam on their brakes when the signal turns yellow, causing tailgaters to ram into them.

I had my car rear-ended when I stopped at a light just before it was to turn red while the driver behind me thought I was going to “go for it” and slammed into the back of my car, causing $2,000.00 worth of damages.

With the installation of speed cameras you will also see cities using the expensive, sophisticated synchronized lights to do the opposite… run in un-synchronized mode thus getting people to floor it so they can make the next light and not have to wait.  Cities can use other dirty tricks like setting the speed limit artificially low or dropping the speed limit suddenly to catch drivers.

Speed cameras are already common in England, which is swimming in cameras.

Speed doesn’t kill by itself… irresponsible driving does.  In Europe, driving licenses are expensive to acquire whereas in the U.S. they are not, thus leading to foolish behavior as it is so easy and cheap to get a driving license.

Of course, if Liberals hadn’t busted Kalifornia’s economy they wouldn’t need to resort to these underhanded methods to begin with, would they?

As for me… I have a VW Bus and don’t need to worry about speeding tickets.

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