An average serious accident will cost a community $50 grand. One serious accident will probably eat up nearly all possible savings of turning out the lights for a year.
The real issue is not bs lawsuits but the continual increase in electricity usage by cities counties and government in general. Traffic signals alone proliferating like rabbits and should be off or flashing from 10pm to 6am weekdays, and street lighting could be cut in half. LED’s would help considerably but are still a budget buster. As long as the economy is in the condition it is in, tax increases, balanced approaches, revenue raising, fee increases, and any other such nonsense should be avoided at all costs, while whittling away at previous money raising successes, and for sure avoiding increases in full time bureaucratic employees.