Red light cameras will get another look from the Indiana General Assembly next year, but not as a way to improve safety.

What has driven communities like Hammond to consider installing these cameras at traffic lights is to generate revenue. The idea is to use technology to photograph the license plates of offenders so the owners of those vehicles can be sent traffic tickets in the mail.

It's an interesting idea, but not a good one.

Red light cameras aren't currently set up to photograph the driver behind the wheel, so determining who actually committed the offense still requires a human -- a police officer, not a camera.

Because of Hammond's zeal for these cameras, which prompted requests by interested legislators, Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter was asked to render an official opinion on whether they are legal.

Carter's answer is that they aren't legal yet.

Three years ago, the General Assembly crushed a bill to legalize the red light cameras. The bill got only 17 of the 51 votes needed in the House.

State Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, said the tax caps that have put the squeeze on municipal budgets are a good argument to reconsider the legislation.

"I think when we dealt with it before, we weren't concerned about dollars," she said. "But I think that the addition of dollars to the discussion would aid and assist it."

Or maybe not. Her argument is to use a device designed to improve safety -- even though it isn't unfair in its law enforcement techniques -- and use it to generate revenue.

The pursuit of revenue should not be a driving force behind the push to authorize municipalities to install red light cameras.

An argument can be made for safety, but coveting the revenue could jeopardize safety down the road by officials wanting to shorten the yellow light to increase revenue from each red light camera at some point in the future.

The property tax caps that are curbing municipalities' spending are there for a reason. They are in place to force local governments to learn to live within their means. Tightening the belt, not installing red light cameras, is the answer.

It cannot be said often enough: Communities must stop whining about how much they're hurting and cut their budgets, including getting rid of their bloated payrolls.