Predicted Impact Of Photo Radar Revenue Loss Impacts City's Budget
By Robert Thomas
It was an area of contention for the City and brought up in discussions with the Province - all to no avail - and as predicted the change in the formula to share photo radar proceeds has impacted the City’s bottom line.
Presenting the 2020 Preliminary Revenue and Expenditure Report finance director Brian Acker pointed out how the change in how photo radar proceeds are shared have impacted the City.
“Due to the changes the Province made to the sharing of those revenues from photo radar we now only get about one-third of the revenue that we previously did,” Acker said. “So were are seeing some significant decreases in the revenues overall.”
According the revenues statement the City received $813,082 in 2020 for fines and penalties or a $320,618 shortfall of the $1,133,700 initially budgeted to come in during 2020. In 2019 the same budget line generated $1,339,802.
Under the formula used during the pilot project the Province received 25 percent of the fine revenue before expenses with the funds going to the General Revenue Fund. The remaining 75 percent went to SGI that used the funds to pay for the camera expenses. The City then received all proceeds leftover after the expenses of operating the cameras was paid.
Under the formula in effect today the same 25 percent of the gross fine total goes to the Province and is put into the General Revenue Fund. The remaining 75 percent goes to SGI to pay the camera expenses. The remaining proceeds are then split 50-50 between the municipality with the camera (in this case Moose Jaw) and the remainder going into a provincial Traffic Safety Fund that is available to be awarded to other municipalities in the province.
“Again a significant reduction in our fine revenue. This is one we have talked about in the past it is primarily due to our photo radar (revenues),” Acker said.
During Council discussion in 2018 Acker told Council the proposed formula change at that time would reduce the $700,000 annually the City received by half or to $350,000. The City used the funds photo radar generated for traffic safety enhancements with the City spending $1 million the cameras generated during the pilot program on various roadway upgrades.
In an October 2018 email interview the provincial government argued the revised photo radar fines sharing policy allowed all communities in the province the opportunity to make traffic safety enhancements.
“The new funding model is based on the principle that -- if there is any revenue generated by PSE -- communities around Saskatchewan should also be able to access some funding for traffic safety initiatives,” the Province told MJ Independent at the time.
In 2018 the NDP opposition entered the fray saying the funds generated by the cameras after the Province’s 25 percent share and the cost of the cameras should go to the municipality where the cameras were located. They expressed worries the 50 percent share going to Traffic Safety Fund would end up being used by the government for other initiatives.