Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs mayors maintain support for traffic cameras

JOHNSTON - The mayors of Council Bluffs and Cedar Rapids on Friday defended their cities' use of traffic enforcement cameras and welcomed comments from key lawmakers, who said efforts to ban the devices seem to have stalled in the Legislature.

Some lawmakers have called for banning the cameras, which are used by communities throughout the state. They argue that while local officials claim the cameras are intended to improve safety, their real motive is to raise money by issuing more traffic tickets.

Speaking on the Iowa Public Television program, “Iowa Press,” Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan and Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett defended the cameras, calling them a cheap and effective way to reduce accidents and slow traffic.

“We're not being obsessive. We're not trying to gouge anyone. We just want them to obey the law,” Corbett said.

Hanafan said accidents were down about 35 percent in the area of Council Bluffs where the cameras had been installed.

The Legislature is considering a bill that would outlaw the use of automated cameras to enforce traffic laws, but House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, acknowledged in a separate interview that he doesn't have enough support to pass the measure.

Rep. Dave Tjepkes, R-Gowrie, agreed there wasn't enough support to pass a camera ban. Tjepkes, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, tried to draw more backers by changing the measure to only limit fines, but so far there still isn't enough support.

Corbett said many residents initially opposed the cameras when they were installed on Interstate 380 and at intersections with a record of crashes. But he said resistance has dropped off.

“The local community at first probably rejected it a little bit, but as they've seen the results and they experienced personally getting on I-380 and not feeling like it was a racetrack, we've seen a general acceptance,” Corbett said.

Corbett, who earlier served more than a decade in the Legislature before becoming mayor, cautioned lawmakers against tinkering with matters that should be left to local officials.

“We hope the Legislature respects our decisions that we make locally, though they may not like it,” Corbett said.

Hanafan said Council Bluffs collects up to $4 million annually from the traffic cameras.

“We see half of that will go for property tax relief and the other half goes for safety issues,” said Hanafan.

Corbett said Cedar Rapids collects about $3 million a year and uses the money to help finance law enforcement.

Corbett also called on the Legislature to approve commercial property tax reform, but warned current plans could cost the city as much as $4 million a year in revenue.

High commercial property taxes make it hard for cities to woo economic development, he said, which is critical to Cedar Rapids where commercial property values in the downtown core have not returned to pre-flood values.

Raising the motor fuel tax would relieve some pressure on property taxes, Corbett said.

“It used to be a user-pay system, but since the fuel tax hasn't been raised since the late '80s there has been a shift from paying for our roads using fuel tax to actually using property taxes,” Corbett explained.

In Cedar Rapids, more than half of the city's debt service - $85 million - is related to road construction, Corbett said. That increases pressure to raise property taxes because the city's share of gas tax revenues covers a smaller portion of the cost of streets and roads.

He estimates a proposal to increase the gas tax eight to 10 cents a gallon would generate $2.5 million or more.

“That will go a long way toward the $200 million of needs we project over the next 10 years,” he said.

That plan has won the approval of the Senate Transportation Committee, but passage in either chamber is uncertain.

"I don't know if they are going to get it passed with rising gas prices,” Corbett said. “The needs don't go away. All it does is put more pressure on local people to fix the roads using property taxes.”