Republican State Representatives Bill Gustoff and Christian Hermanson approved House File 3 to advance through a subcommittee on Tuesday morning. The bill prohibits subdivisions from contracting with a third party to collect fines for traffic camera violations and also removes the ability to withhold income tax refunds over unpaid traffic camera fines.
A number of organizations said they were “undecided” on the bill, but spoke out against it.
David Adelman of the Metropolitan Coalition and Verra Mobility said last year’s legislation targeting “bad actors” resulted in 194 of the 348 traffic camera systems located in Iowa being denied.
He said this legislation takes a step backward in terms of efficiency as current law allows cities to “do more with less.”
“We believe kind of the intent of (this bill) is misplaced,” Adelman said.
Cody Carlson with the Iowa League of Cities expressed concerns about efficiencies as well. He said the proposal requires cities to shoulder the entire cost of the Automated Traffic Enforcement (ATE) systems whereas they are currently able to cost-share with private vendors while benefitting from the public safety focus.
Mike St. Clair represents Sensys Gatso, which is the technology provider for a number of cities, and said this bill would essentially kick the company out of Iowa. St. Clair said Sensys Gatso is operating above board and would prefer to continue its partnership with cities across the state.
Gary Grant spoke on behalf of Cedar Rapids. He asked the legislature to be mindful going forward after passing the ATE compromise bill last year, which took about a decade to agree upon.
Local governments get frustrated with the legislature as it passes sweeping changes only to come back the next year and tweak things. Grant asked to give the new program under last year’s law some time to work before any changes are made.
Grant argued the bill goes against smaller, smarter government as local governments will have to hire people to collect the fines if they cannot use a third party.
“I know there are a lot of smaller, smarter government folks up here,” Grant said. “Folks up here that want to lessen the burden on local property taxpayers, adding more staff really doesn’t do that.”
Democrat State Rep. Daniel Gosa said he shares many of the concerns expressed by the various lobbyists. He also added that removing the ability to withhold income tax refunds to collect fines removes teeth from traffic camera enforcement.
Gustoff said he’s inclined to support the bill’s passage out of subcommittee. However, he isn’t sure about the bill’s future in full committee.
The bill, sponsored by Republican State Rep. Henry Stone, is in Public Safety Committee. Members of that committee include:
- Mike Vondran (R, District 94), Chair
- Sam Wengryn (R, District 24), Vice Chair
- Eric J. Gjerde (D, District 74), Ranking Member
- Jerome Amos Jr. (D, District 62)
- Timi M. Brown-Powers (D, District 61)
- Mark Cisneros (R, District 96)
- Zach Dieken (R, District 5)
- Dean Fisher (R, District 53)
- Jason Gearhart (R, District 64)
- Daniel Gosa (D, District 81)
- Bill Gustoff (R, District 40)
- Bob Henderson (R, District 2)
- Christian Hermanson (R, District 59)
- Steven C. Holt (R, District 12)
- Bob Kressig (D, District 75)
- Elinor A. Levin (D, District 89)
- Joshua Meggers (R, District 54)
- Brian Meyer (D, District 29)
- Gary M. Mohr (R, District 93)
- Matthew Rinker (R, District 99)
- Charley Thomson (R, District 58)
- Beth Wessel-Kroeschell (D, District 49)
- John H. Wills (R, District 10)
