At the Nassau County Legislature’s Finance Committee hearing on the 2011 Budget held on Friday in Mineola, County Legislator Wayne Wink may have offered a glimmer of hope for LI Bus riders with a proposal for supporting LI Bus operations.

During the public comment period, Wink, the Ranking Member on the Committee, floated the possibility of dedicating new red light camera revenues to the system.

Red light cameras were first approved for use in areas outside NYC in early 2009, with Nassau allowed 50. County Executive Ed Mangano’s budget would expand the county’s use of cameras (requiring state approval), and Legislator Wink’s proposal would use the anticipated $17 million in revenues towards supporting LI Bus. This new revenue, plus the existing $9.1 million that the County is currently contributing to the system, would be enough to meet the MTA’s request that the County contribute $25 million a year for four years.

Legislator Wink’s proposal is still a rough sketch, but is more realistic than any policy prescription offered by the County to address the funding shortfall at LI Bus. Last week, County officials offered more details on their proposal to privatize LI Bus, saying that Nassau would not provide any financial support to the system, and in fact would seek a cut of all fare revenue earned by the bus operator. It’s hard to see a private company jumping at this chance — and harder still to imagine the resulting system being anything more than a shadow of what Nassau has today.