State Representative Paul Hollis has pre-filed a legislative proposal that would restrict the issuance of traffic camera citations to motorists who live in the parish or city where the citations are issued.

"The proliferation of these revenue-generating devices has done nothing to enhance public safety but has only allowed local governments and third-party administrators to profit," Hollis says.

"Governments are not in existance to make money, but to provide essential services.  Automated traffic enforcement is not a service, it's a tax."

Holis notes that cameras are not used in St. Tammany Parish and says motorists whose vehicles are registered in St. Tammany shouldn't have to pay fines they may receive for camera violations elsewhere.

"I don't want to infringe on the will of local governments or the voters who support them, but I don't want the rest of us to have to bow to their will, either."

The representative says traffic cameras "are nothing more than an invasion of privacy and a revenue-generating tool."

"They don't make us safer, they make us poorer," he says.