Finally, Louisiana has a real chance to end a pair of burdensome laws dealing with vehicle operation that masquerade as safety measures but in reality exist primarily to fatten government coffers.
In 2017, then 2019, then 2020, and now this year Republican state Rep. Larry Bagley has tried to alter, if not jettison, non-commercial periodic vehicle inspections except in cases where federal law requires it for air pollution controls. This year’s HB 344 does that. Some states don’t require any inspections, while about two-thirds enforce an emissions check at some point, mostly at transfer. Few follow Louisiana’s model by asking for full safety checks.
That makes sense, given the considerable advances in vehicle safety and that public safety officers still will have the authority to cite motorists driving in visibly unsafe vehicles (inspections only address these items). The only real beneficiaries of the state’s current testing regime are the state and contracted testers, who rake $10 a year off owners for the exercise (and some testers merely go through the motions anyway).
Their opposition to date has prevented the repeal. Hopefully, the GOP supermajorities in each chamber – and a friendly push from Republican Gov. Jeff Landry – will convince legislators with feet of clay to resist the special interests against and finally get rid of this useless law that only serves to beggar the citizenry.
Another similarly needless practice also should be disallowed. While a number of bills have been introduced that would circumscribe the practice, the best bill addressing the use of speed enforcement cameras is SB 21 by GOP state Sen. Alan Seabaugh, which would prohibit their use entirely.
Long-standing arguments compellingly favor the bill’s intent. Unfairly, if not unconstitutionally, the cited vehicle owner, not actual driver, faces any legal consequences without any real-time peace officer witnessing. The for-profit operators have poor track records in ensuring proper operating equipment and legally when cameras may be in service and with providing recourse to cited vehicle owners to challenge the citation prior to court appearances (the Shreveport part of Seabaugh’s district having become embroiled in controversy over these matters last year with cameras operating around school zones). And, specifically to Louisiana, fines collected this way skip the otherwise-mandated use of traffic violation receipts that go to local law enforcement agencies and courts that shortchange these agencies and require taxpayers to make up the difference. Indeed, in areas where local governments employ these this particularly can bedevil cash-strapped public defenders.
As in the case of vehicle inspections, the practice continues because local governments want money and see this as a way to avoid trimming expenses and/or raising taxes, and ally with their contractors to pressure legislators into retaining it, particularly pitching the argument that it promotes safety. This is the tack taken by the Caddo Parish Commission, which plans to initiate such a program on parish roads.
If an outright ban doesn’t find majority support, then if objectors really mean it’s all about safety, they should support an amendment that allows this kind of enforcement to continue but with any proceeds beyond paying off contractors reverting solely to district attorneys, public defenders, and district courts – the law should provide no financial advantage whatsoever to local governments who choose to conduct these programs. Opposition to that would expose them as the hypocrites they are.
While the total ban is best, at the very least the Legislature should pass a law that doesn’t let local governments take financial advantage of the situation and others that place requirements on conducting such enforcement that in practical terms would restrict severely usage. This money grab by local governments that insults citizens’ constitutional protections and impoverishes judicial activities must be severely curtailed, if not halted entirely.
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