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ANNAPOLIS — The House of Delegates on Friday passed a bill allowing counties and municipalities statewide to install speed enforcement cameras near schools and in highway work zones.
The bill, which passed 94-41 after two days of debate, is headed to Gov. Martin O'Malley's desk.
It allows local jurisdictions to issue $40 tickets to speeders photographed going 12 mph or more above the posted limit. Drivers would not receive points on their license.
The Senate passed the measure last week after bringing it back to the floor for reconsideration a day after it was voted down.
Opponents of the bill said that the cameras, currently allowed in Montgomery County only, were nothing more than revenue generators and that police officers are better for public safety.
They also raised privacy concerns.
"Every time we have one of these red light camera bills, speed camera bills, I get up here and tell you freedom's not lost in one fell swoop, it's lost one camera at a time, one bad bill at a time," said Del. Michael D. Smigiel Sr. (R-Dist. 36) of Elkton.
The bill "sets a bad precedent" that will lead to pressure to increase fines and expand the use of cameras to other areas, said Del. William J. Frank (R-Dist. 42) of Lutherville.
A provision to allow cameras in residential areas was stripped from the original bill, which O'Malley (D) included as part of his legislative agenda for this year.
Amendments to put a certain amount of revenues collected from fines toward income and property tax credits failed on the House floor.
The Montgomery County pilot program, which began in 2007, has been "overall quite popular and successful," Del. Tom Hucker said in an interview after the vote.
Opponents cited Chevy Chase Village's windfall of revenue from a speed camera installed on Connecticut Avenue. In the first eight months of the camera's operation, the municipality collected fines totaling more than one-third of its annual operating budget of $4.5 million.
An amendment to the bill calls for any revenues that exceed 10 percent of a jurisdiction's total revenues for a given year to be put toward the state's general fund.
"We've applied lessons of the Montgomery County speed camera program to improve the state program now," said Hucker (D-Dist. 20) of Silver Spring.
The House had already passed local bills allowing Howard and Prince George's counties and Baltimore city to install cameras. Those bills stalled in a Senate committee.
Del. Galen R. Clagett said that he voted for the bill as a former school administrator who saw two students hit by cars.
"I don't care about the fine issue; I care about the speed issue," said Clagett (D-Dist. 3A) of Frederick.