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PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano is defending her plan to exempt speeders caught by a new statewide photo radar system from ever having to lose their licenses or have their insurance rates go up.

Napolitano said Wednesday that the provision she insisted go in the budget is designed to be "as little paperwork as possible." She said that can happen if people decide to pay the tickets rather than fight them.

The budget bill, negotiated by the governor and signed by her on Friday, requires the Department of Public Safety to contract with private companies to set up a network of photo radar cameras throughout the state.

The automated cameras are designed to take pictures of speeders and, using their license plates for information, send citations to them.

Lawmakers were told this is likely to start out with 100 units, divided almost evenly between fixed and van-mounted mobile cameras.

State law spells out that those who are ticketed for speeding are assessed three "points" against their license.

Eight points in a year send a motorist to traffic survival school; 12 points suspend a license.

Napolitano, however, demanded that the legislation setting up statewide photo radar spell out that violators need only to pay the $165 fine, with no points assessed.

The law also says the tickets cannot be reported to insurance companies.

"The idea is that people will be more inclined simply to pay the tickets if they're not getting points," she said.

What that does, Napolitano said, is make the program cheaper to administer, "so we don't suck up all this money in administration costs."

Napolitano said she believes the fine itself "will, in and of itself, be a financial deterrent to speeding."

The governor has been pushing the idea of photo radar for a year as a public-safety measure to free up highway patrol officers to catch other motorists engaging in unsafe behavior.

It was only in January that she suggested it become a source of revenue, predicting it could net the state $90 million in its first year.

Another reason she exempted photo radar citations from points: She needed all the legislative votes she could get, as the budget package passed without a single vote to spare.

Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, who voted for the $9.9 billion budget, said the only way he would support photo radar is with the provision banning points.

Campbell said backers of photo radar have claimed it will change behavior.

But he said that can't happen unless people know they've been "ticketed," which might not happen until weeks after the incident — and after they perhaps got another photo radar speeding ticket.

"You were never given a chance to modify your behavior based on that first ticket," he said. "It's completely unethical in my eyes."

Adding points to photo radar, he said, "is just punitive at this point."