New fees from residents, including what could be a more than tenfold increase in the cost for claiming a towed car and an extra dime to ride the bus, will help Montgomery County plug a $401 million projected budget deficit for the fiscal year that starts in July.
Under County Executive Ike Leggett’s a plan, which currently awaits final approval from the County Council, police will raise fees for towing cars substantially.
Police spokeswoman Melanie Hadley said the county currently charges residents $23 a day for storing towed vehicles. Under the plan they would add the full cost for towing a vehicle — about $237- plus$6 per letter mailed to the vehicle’s owner.
For residents who don’t drive, the county would raise fares from $1.25 to $1.35 per trip on the county’s Ride On buses. The fare increase, which must be approved by the county council, would match Ride On fares with Metrobus fares, which were raised to $1.35 earlier this year.
“This increase in liability fees will help repay the true costs that Montgomery County spends in towing, processing and disposing of the many abandoned, wrecked and junked vehicles left on our roadways,” Leggett’s memo proposing the cuts said.
The county’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will also provide the county with about $600,000 in unanticipated revenue this year.
According to the department director, Art Wallenstein, the county will reap a financial benefit from the court system sending an increasing number of people charged with minor, nonviolent crime to community service programs, rather than trials. Those eligible to do so must pay fees to participate in the programs, which will wind up in county coffers.
Local detention centers are also getting more reimbursements then expected from the federal government for housing illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes and housing more federal inmates than expected during budget time.
Wallenstein said those additional funds are also being given to the county.
