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Mayor Martin Chavez has decided to suspend the city's controversial red-light camera program, effective immediately.

The mayor held a news conference Thursday evening after the Legislature sent the governor a bill that takes the money out of the city's coffers.

"We need to see what the governor is going to do," Chavez told The Tribune in a Thursday phone call. "The legislation the governor had introduced takes the operational moneys away. Not only is it taking the excess, it takes our ability to operate it away.

"We need to see if he's going to sign it."

Chavez said that if the governor takes all the money from the program and gives it to the state, "it's a $1.3 (million) to $1.4 million hit to the general fund.

"And, of course, our budget is very, very tight right now."

If the money is directed to the state, it will be used to pay for bonds used in constructing the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Courthouse.

In that case, if the city was to continue the program, the costs would then be passed on to taxpayers, the mayor said. Currently, all costs are covered by ticket-payers.