PHOENIX — The state’s coffers could be fattened by $210 million a year — or more — under the terms of the new contract for photo enforcement of speed and red-light laws.

Figures provided by the state Department of Public Safety show that the existing eight cameras the agency now operates — two mobile and six fixed — already are snapping the pictures of between 75 and 100 speeders a day.

Multiply that by the 100 cameras the state will begin rolling out in late September and the numbers add up.

And that may not be the end: A little-noticed provision in the five-year contract actually gives DPS the option to double the number of cameras. In fact, Redflex Traffic Systems, the firm that got the bid, already is telling investors it has a deal for 200 cameras.

DPS Lt. James Warriner said that announcement is premature — and, for the moment, inaccurate. He said the only thing Redflex is guaranteed now is the ability to operate 40 mobile vans and 60 fixed systems.

Warriner said, though, that the contract was purposely set up to allow for expansion “based on what we may feel we may use in the future.”

And more cameras to catch more violators also could mean big bucks to help out with the state’s deficit.

In January, Gov. Janet Napolitano figured the net revenues to the state this fiscal year at $90 million. And that’s with half of the 100 cameras in place only half of the budget year and the other half operating just nine months; on a full-year basis, the governor’s staff figured, the state would net about $125 million.

Some calculations based on the state’s current experience with photo cameras, however, suggest the estimate may be greatly understated. And part of that is because the governor changed the rules.

Start with those 75 to 100 “activations” a day of each of the eight cameras. That means roughly something between 27,000 and 36,000 speeders a year per camera. Multiply that times 100 when fully operational that translates out to between 2.7 million and 3.6 million pictures.

To put that in perspective, there are only 4.3 million Arizonans with driver licenses.

And those go off at 11 miles over the posted speed; the new cameras will be set to snap the pictures of motorists going just 10 miles faster than the legal limit, likely capturing more speeders.

Warriner said, though, about 40 percent of those violations do not result in citations. Factors can range from the camera not actually capturing the speeding vehicle to vehicles with license plates from elsewhere, particularly Mexico, as there is no access to their records to know where to send the ticket.

That still leaves a potential of between 1.6 million and 2.1 million citations — at $165 apiece. On a full-year basis, that would gross the state at least $265 million.

Of that, Redflex gets up to $28.75 per paid citation. The actual amount is based on a sliding scale — Warriner did not know the cut points — with the per-ticket payment decreasing as more citations are paid, down to as low as low as $16.95.

Even if Redflex got that maximum $28.75 per citation, that still could leave close to $220 million for the state on a full-year basis, even using the lower estimate of the number of citations per camera. Of that, $10 million might be given to courts for their costs.

Napolitano’s original projections put the full-year take at about $125 million. That, however, was based on the presumption that many motorists would opt to go to traffic school rather than pay the citation, a move that avoids having the offense go on the driving record.

But the final version of the law demanded by the governor takes away the incentive for that alternative: It spells out that these photo radar citations are not reportable to insurance companies and do not accumulate “points” that, with multiple violations, could result in loss of license.

Napolitano said that provision was inserted specifically to convince more people to pay the citations.

If the state does exercise its rights under the contract and double the number of enforcement cameras, that could increase all the projections by a factor of two.

Conversely, the number of citations issued could be a lot less — if motorists start paying attention.

State law requires that there be at least two signs in front of every operating photo enforcement camera, with none of them any closer than 100 yards from the radar, “to provide reasonable notice to a person that a photo enforcement system is present and operational.” And still those cameras snap up to 100 times a day.