You know, I really didn’t want to get involved in this speed camera debate. I think the town is operating in good faith. I think they’re hoping to reduce speeding and make some money. That’s fine with me, since I don’t speed and know the town needs money badly. But on the other hand, if the referendum went against the cameras, it wasn’t going to bother me much.

Then I saw the anti-speed camera flyer that Chris Martin’s been circulating, and I suddenly didn’t feel like being quiet anymore, not so much because I suddenly want speed cameras really badly, but because I value honesty and common sense and dislike cynicism.

Basically the flyer is a bunch of bullet points. Let’s start at the beginning.

Bullet point number 1: “Did you know our little town just became infamous, appearing on Fox News' 'Hannity' program! We were listed #11 on their list of most wasteful spenders. The show aired March 10, 2010.”

Here’s the transcript from Fox News, which came under this headline. “Waste 102: Harvard's Robotic Bee Project Tops List of Government's Most Reckless Spending.”

HANNITY: And No. 11 goes to Sykesville, Maryland, which received $25,000 of stimulus money. And they're spending it on, well, who knows? The town manager told the local paper, quote, "We haven't determined what we'll do with it."

Hannity was making fun of the President for throwing stimulus money around. It was all about national politics and had nothing to do with Sykesville or how the town spends money. Hannity took the town manager’s comment out of context to make us and the Federal Government look stupid, and Martin took Hannity’s comment out of context to depict the town government as big-time money wasters. What’s it have to do with speed cameras? Nothing.

Bullet point number 2: “Under the new ordinance, the town could take in hundreds of thousands of dollars more from taxpayers.”

Right. If the ordinance passes, then under state law, the town is allowed to keep the money brought in by the cameras up to 10% of the town’s budget. (Anything over this goes to the state.) The town budget is about $2,000,000, so speed camera revenue would be capped at about $200,000, all of which must be used for public safety. The flyer doesn’t mention this.

So in theory, the town could make $200,000 annually off speed cameras. But this only happens if we’re a town full of morons who continue to speed and get ticketed over and over again without thinking something like, “Hey, maybe I should slow down and stop giving all my money to the town.”

Bullet point number 3: “New revenue excuses the town from making tough budget choices.”

The town just made a lot of tough budget choices, which included restructuring the benefits provided to town employees, and next year they’ll be forced to make more. We’re barely out of a recession. Recessions hit governments last, and governments recover from recessions last.

The state government reduced the amount of state highway usage funds and other funds available to the town this year by about $200,000. This caused an immediate budget crisis. Our home values have all just gone way down, which will reduce the amount of property tax money available to run the town in upcoming years. The town budget is cut to the bone, and things are about to get worse.

It’s possible the town will make enough money off the cameras – if people continue to speed – to help alleviate the budget crisis, and it’s possible we’ll continue to have a post office and snow removal and a police force and a museum, but it’s also possible we won’t be able to afford some of these things much longer. Speed camera money does not excuse the town from anything. It just provides more options. If you like things the way they are, I would think that’s a good thing.

Bullet point number 4: “Over the past decade, the size and cost of Sykesville’s government has grown. The Town Government desperately needs this new money. They tried to charge you for trash and now want to stick it to you, the taxpayer, for driving.”

No, they don’t want to stick it to us, the taxpayers, for driving. They want to stick it to them, the speeders, for speeding. If you don’t speed, you don’t pay. If you don’t speed, maybe a life is saved some time in the future. Is it really that hard, or that inconvenient, not to speed during the few minutes it takes to get from one end of this small town to the other?

And about the trash. That was dropped. It was the idea of the previous administration, and it was an attempt to alleviate a real problem in a creative way. It was complicated and a tough sell and probably helped cost the previous mayor the election. Whether it was a good idea or bad, the current town government had nothing to do with it. In fact, it was one of the main issues the current mayor used to attack the previous mayor. So no, they didn’t try to charge us for trash.

Finally, the town government is not growing and has not been growing over the past ten years. It’s still a town manager, a police chief, a small staff of employees, a mayor and a group of amateur politicians who are pretty much working for free. Sure, the town desperately needs money, but not so the town government can waste it. They need it so the town itself can survive the recession and its aftermath intact.

Those are just the first four bullet points. There are many more. Read them with skepticism. Speed cameras may or may not solve the speeding problem or bring enough new revenue into town to make a significant difference. The town government may or may not be a good one, but it’s not some greedy growing monster out to fleece us of our money. Or stick it to us.

When you’re making your decision, consider this flyer what it is – propaganda designed to anger and alienate rather than educate.

For more information about Speed Cameras in Sykesville, please click here: Speed Camera Resources