Hawaii Governor Kills Van Cams

The Honolulu Advertiser ^ | 04/10/02 | Lynda Arakawa, Mike Gordon

[Spyder]

A surprising vote by the House last night to repeal traffic camera enforcement of speeding on state roads and highways was the final blow to the much-maligned program. After learning of the vote, Gov. Ben Cayetano today terminated the program, effective immediately.

[Redbob]

"Like dear hunting with an antipersonel mine."

Sounds interesting, but did you by any chance mean "deer" hunting?

[Redbob]

"“The latest occurrence where the judge is beginning to question, and ready to rule on, the legality of the (program) and the continual public outrage that we have has led me to believe that the program at this point cannot be salvaged,” said Souki, D-8th (Waiehu, MÅ‘alaea, NÅpili). “And therefore, in deference to the public, who has shown a great distaste for this program, I am willing to provide before this body that we repeal this program.”

What is this, a direct literal translation from Japanese?

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Van Damme must really be slipping if he can't even take the governor of Hawaii?

[texson66]

Yep! You're singing to the choir!

[Spyder]

What gets me is the willness of governmental bodies to fund a program, then kill it only a few months later, and nobody talks about the setup costs or losses incurred. The sheeple feels lucky to have stopped the program, but overlooks the waste of money in the first place.

That actually hasn't been overlooked here. The news has reported several times (just heard it again half an hour ago) that to avoid breach of contract with the mainland van cam company, Hawaii will have to shell out $5-8 million bucks. Just another excuse to raise taxes, but then the van cams in the first place were a way of enacting a hidden tax.

[tracer]

In other words, you'd be happy as a clam....

[tracer]

Governor kills van cams after House repeal vote House Repeals Vote to Kill Governor Van Cams.....

[Saundra Duffy]

Used to live on Big Island when Lingle ran last time. Volunteered on her campaign, I'm proud to say! I was board member of Kona League of Republican Women and exec board member of Hawaii County Republican Committee. Oh, those were the days - NOT!! Hawaii is even worse than California if that's possible. What's up with Jim Rath? I heard he's still in the State House. He was a friend and I admire him very much. A real strong wonderful conservative. For victory & freedom!!!

[Spyder]

Spyder, are you from or living in Hawaii? (BLINDING JEALOUSY BUILDING RAPIDLY AS I WAIT FOR YET ANOTHER TO-SHORT SUMMERTIME TO COME UPON US)

From Michigan originally, transferred here (Hawaii) with the better half in 1994 thanks to Uncle Sam. We managed to homestead till 1999 when they sent us back to TX, then managed to work a deal where he volunteered for a year in Korea if they'd send us back here for the final tour so we could retire here. Other than the entrenched DemocRAT government, it's a great place to live, particularly with commissary access to defray food expenses.

[Spyder]

Here's Rath's website Jim Rath Looks like he's still active.

As to HI being worse than CA, historically you're very correct. We'll see what happens in both states the next election to see if either has started to move in the right direction. Even if the DemocRATs pull it off here, hopefully it will be Harris, which is an improvement over Cayetano, who was a huge improvement over Waihee. The "better half" is a Californian born and raised - remembers Reagan's campaigns fondly.

We fell in love with Hawaii when the Army sent us here in 1994. Hope to remain when he ETSs in 2005 assuming he can find work. I worked on Orson Swindle's campaign in '96 (?) a bit. Would have really enjoyed working on Lingle's as well and plan to once my husband gets back from Korea this summer.

[dr_who]

The ones in DC are still operating, but drivers are getting used to them. The speedtrap car is parked at the same spot each time, and whenever they're operating, that's where the traffic jams are. People see the car, slow down, traffic piles up behind them, and everyone returns to their original speed once they're out of sight of the camera. No doubt this system frees up all those cops who would otherwise we sitting in marked patrol cars on the side of the road watching cars go by, which makes me wonder why the camera cars are always manned. Just how do they pass the time while the speedcam does all the work? Never mind that. Anyway, I suppose for the unsuspecting suckers who don't drive during rush hours and thus tend to be travelling too fast to slow down before getting "blinked", it's kind of like the lottery in reverse (another popular government revenue enhancer).

[dr_who]

Thats Van Darn you're talking about. I think he's a frog.

[dr_who]

This is democratic tactics to continually push up tax revenues. It's free money to them; they're gonna find new ways to spend it one way or another.

I think these sorts of tactics (old fashioned speedtraps especially) are probably also popular in traditionally conservative rural areas, where it's hard to raise other taxes because of local opposition. I wouldn't lay the blame completely on Democrats. Regardless of party, finding new ways to spend money is never an issue. Chances are the money has already been spent.

[A CA Guy]

Van Dam a frog, that's his place of origin? I thought he was Finished! LOL