Politics & Government
Council Approves Traffic Camera Measure
Revenue generated by traffic cameras will be split between East Brunswick and the county.
The Township Council authorized an agreement Monday to share the costs and fines procured from traffic signal cameras with the Middlesex County, allowing East Brunswick to bill the county for some apparently unpaid costs involving the cameras.
Several members of the council were confused as to why the township must share revenue gained from tickets issued by traffic cameras, but, after a lengthy discussion, approved the resolution nonetheless.
“We are not about revenue; we are about enforcement of the laws and safety,” Administrator James White told the council. “But there is a mandatory provision that the township must share some of the fines with the county.”
Find out what's happening in East Brunswickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Traffic signal cameras were introduced by the state on an experimental basis for a five year period.
But according to an agreement set forth by the state, all revenue gained from such cameras must be split between the township and its county. Likewise, the costs for maintaining the cameras are to be split as well.
Find out what's happening in East Brunswickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Concerned about how much money the township is losing because of this agreement, several members of the council wanted assurances that splitting the revenue was required by law, and that the municipality saves as much money as possible.
“When I was reading the language of the agreement, the language seemed to be more not that we had to do it, but that his was going to be a shared services (agreement),” Council President Camille Ferraro said.
Fortunately for the township, the company used to install and maintain the cameras does so at its own expense. And other than that, the only costs consist of the officers that review the video of traffic violations and issue summonses.
But the council was assured by legal counsel at the meeting that the town’s Chief Financial Officer was doing his best to make sure the township doesn’t get cheated.
Most tickets involving the use of traffic cameras get paid directly to the state, which the doles out the money to both the township and county. Therefore, municipalities rarely see the entire revenue generated from the new technology.
In the end, all but Councilwomen Nancy Pinkin approved the measure.
