If you mention three simple words in Palm Coast, you'll likely get an earful.

Red light cameras.

"No good," said Jose Vazquez, a Palm Coast resident. "The reason they're no good (is) it's just more of a way to generate revenue."

If you're caught running one of Palm Coast's 43 red light cameras, you'll be hit with a $158 citation. If you fail to pay the citation, the fine becomes a Uniform Traffic Citation, and you'd then be on the hook for $264 — with the majority of the money going to Tallahassee.

That's how it used to be, though.

Tom Bexley, the chief deputy clerk of the Flagler County Clerk of Circuit Court, said things changed in late October.

"Effective Oct. 22, they just automatically ceased and desisted," Bexley said. "No activity whatsoever."

That's because Bill Reischmann, Palm Coast's city attorney, sent a letter to American Traffic Solutions, the Arizona-based company in charge of the city's red light camera program, telling them to stop issuing the UTCs.

Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal, in West Palm Beach, stated a private company couldn't generate the UTCs.

Over the last three months, from Aug. 1 to Oct. 22, there were 552 UTCs handled by the Flagler County Clerk of Circuit Court.

About $60,000 from those citations went to the state, and that pipeline — at least in Flagler County — has now run dry.

But, does this mean the end of red light cameras in Palm Coast or elsewhere in Florida?

Without the money, opponents of the cameras, like Vazquez, hope lawmakers put an end to the cameras.

"It's just bad karma for the city," he said. "I'd love to see them gone."

Added Bexley: "As far as the (Clerk of Circuit Courts') office and the workload, I'm not sorry to see it because it will free up our folks to do the things they were intended to do."

Palm Coast receives about $700 per camera per month from American Traffic Solutions for a total of $30,500.

The contract with ATS is set to end in 2019, but city officials have been studying ways to possibly end it sooner.